UC-NRLF 


on 


Milton  Newnark 


(/ 


Students'  Series  of  lEngltsf)  Classics. 

Coleridge's  Ancient  Mariner 25  cts. 

A  Ballad  Book       .       . 50 

Edited  by  KATHARINE  LEE  BATES,  Wellesley  College. 

Matthew  Arnold's  Sohrab  and  Rustum 25   .. 

Webster's  First  Bunker  Hill  Oration S3 

Milton,  Lyrics 2_ 

Edited  by  LOUISE  MANNING  HODGKINS. 

Introduction  to  the  Writings  of  John  Ruskin 50   .. 

Macaulay's  Essay  on  Lord  Clive 35 

Edited  by  VIDA  D.  SCUDDER,  Wellesley  College. 

George  Eliot's  Silas  Marner 35   .. 

Scott's  Marmion 35    .. 

Edited  by  MARY  HARRIOTT  NORRIS,  Instructor,  New  York. 
Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  Papers  from  The  Spectator       .       .       .       .     35   .. 

Edited  by  A.  S.  ROE,  Worcester,  Mass. 
Macaulay's  Second  Essay  on  the  Earl  of  Chatham     .       .       .       .     35   .. 

Edited  by  W.  W,  CURTIS,  High  School,  Pawtucket,  R.I. 
Johnson's  History  of  Rasselas 35   .. 

Edited  by  FRED  N.  SCOTT,  University  of  Michigan* 
Joan  of  Arc  and  Other  Selections  from  De  Quincey     .       .       .       .     35   .. 

Edited  by  HENRY  H.  BELFIELD,  Chicago  Manual  Training  School. 
Carlyle's  The  Diamond  Necklace 35   •• 

Edited  by  W.  F.  MOZIER,  High  School,  Ottawa,  111. 
Macaulay's  Essays  on  Milton  and  Addison 85   •• 

Edited  by  JAMES  CHALMERS,  Ohio  State  University. 
Lays  Of  Ancient  Rome [Nearly  ready} 

Edited  by  VIOLA  V.  PRICE,  Southwest  Kansas  College. 
Selections  from  the  Speeches  of  Henry  Clay  .       .     [Nearly  ready} 

Edited  by  CHARLES  H.  RAYMOND,  Lawrenceville  School. 
Scott's  Lady  of  the  Lake [Nearly  ready} 

Edited  by  JAMES  ARTHUR  TUFTS,  Phillips  Exeter  Academy. 
Charles  Sumner's  True  Grandeur  of  Nations  .       .     [Nearly  ready} 

Edited  by  GEO.  L.  MARIS,  Friends'  Central  School,  Philadelphia. 
Selected  Orations  and  Speeches        ....     [Nearly  ready} 

Edited  by  C.  A.  WHITING,  University  of  Utah. 

Several  others  are  in  preparation,  and  all  are  substantially  bound  in  cloth. 


LEACH,  SHEWELL,  &  SANBORN,  Publishers, 

BOSTON.       NEW  YORK.       CHICAGO. 


^infants'  Juries  xrf  ^txglisfe  ©lassixs. 


MILTON  LYRICS. 

L'ALLEGRO,    IL    PENSEROSO,    COMUS, 
AND    LYCIDAS. 


EDITED   BY 

LOUISE  MANNING  HODGKINS,  M.A. 


"  Had  Paradise  Lost  remained  unwritten,  the  earlier  lyrics  of  Milton 
•would  have  ranked  him  above  all  his  contemporaries  in  Lyric  Poetry" 

BAYNB. 


LEACH,    SHEWELL,   &   SANBORN. 
BOSTON.  NEW  YORK.  CHICAGO. 


COPYRIGHT,  1893, 
BY  LEACH,  SHEWELL,  &  SANBORN. 


TYPOGRAPHY  AND  ELECTROTYPING  BY 
C.  J.  PETEKS  &  SON,  BOSTON. 


BERWICK  &  SMITH,  PRINTERS,  BOSTON. 


933 


PREFACE. 


No  conscientious  worker  can  edit  or  annotate  any 
portion  of  the  Poetical  Works  of  Milton  without  an 
acknowledgment  of  his  indebtedness  to  David  Masson, 
who  devoted  a  score  of  years  to  his  voluminous  edition 
of  the  life  and  works  of  John  Milton.  The  large  size 
of  Masson's  edition  puts  it  out  of  the  reach  of  the 
ordinary  student.  The  present  work,  while  it  follows 
in  the  footsteps  of  the  nobler  scholar  in  text,  and  for 
the  most  part  takes  his  dictum  in  disputed  renderings, 
aims  to  cover  only  those  points  that  are  necessary  to 
an  intelligent  study  of  the  poems  included  in  its  pages. 

Thanks  are  extended  to  Dr.  Eice  of  the  Springfield 
Public  Library,  and  Superintendent  Cutter  of  the  Bos- 
ton Athenaeum,  for  many  courtesies  in  the  way  of  library 
facilities  during  the  preparation  of  this  little  volume. 

L.  M.  H. 

MARCH,  1893. 


M633318 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

CONTEMPORANEOUS  LYRIC  POETS vii 

REFERENCES  FOR  THE  STUDY  OF  MILTON ix 

CHRONOLOGICAL  OUTLINE xi 

BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 1 

LITERARY  CHARACTERISTICS 10 

FAMOUS  MASQUES 15 

L' ALLEGRO  AND  IL  PENSEROSO 21 

COMUS 35 

LYCIDAS 72 

NOTES  ON: 

L' ALLEGRO 79 

IL  PENSEROSO 83 

COMUS 88 

LYCIDAS 97 


CONTEMPORANEOUS   LYRIC   POETS. 


JOHN  DONNE,  1573-1631.    __ 

WILLIAM  BK'OWNE,  1588-1643. 

THOMAS  CAREW,  1589-1639. 

ROBERT  HERRICK,  1594-1674. 

SIR  JOHN  SUCKLING,  1608-1642. 

RICHARD  LOVELACE,  1618-1658. 

WILLIAM  DRUMMOND,  1585-1649. 

GEORGE  HERBERT,  1592-1634. 

JEREMY  TAYLOR  (a  lyric  poet  who  wrote  his  lyrics  in  prose), 

1613-1667. 

RICHARD  CRASHAW,  1615-1650. 
HENRY  VAUGHAN,  1621-1695. 
ABRAHAM  COWLEY,  1618-1667. 
EDMUND  WALLER,  1605-1687. 
SIR  WILLIAM  DAVENANT,  1605-1668. 
(JOHN  MILTON,  1608-1674.) 
ANDREW  MARVELL,  1621-1678. 
SAMUEL  BUTLER,  1612-1680. 
JOHN  DRYDEN,  1631-1700. 


REFERENCES  FOR  THE   STUDY  OF 
MILTON. 


MASSON'S  The  Life  and  Times  of  John  Milton. 

MASSON'S  Milton's  Poetical  Works. 

STOPFORD  BROOKE'S  Milton. 

MARK  PATTISON'S  Milton  (English  Men  of  Letters  Series). 

WALTER  BAGEHOT'S  Literary  Studies  (Milton  Essays). 

MAC AUL AY'S  Essay  on  Milton. 

Lo WELL'S  Essay  on  Milton. 

BIRRELL'S  Obiter  Dicta  (Second  Series)  Essay  on  Milton. 

CARLYLE'S  Heroes  and  Hero  Worship  (The  Hero  as  King). 

CARLYLE'S  Letters  and  Speeches  of  Cromwell. 

FAIRFAX  Correspondence  (Reign  of  Charles  I.). 

MRS.  CHARLES'S  Dray  tons  and  Davenants. 

SEELEY'S  Essays  (Milton). 

STEIN'S  Milton  und  seine  Zeit. 

SYMONDS'S  Sketches  and  Studies  in  Southern  Europe,  Vol.  II., 
pp.  362-382. 

ADDISON'S  Spectator  (Essays  on  Paradise  Lost). 

DR.  JOHNSON'S  Lives  (Milton:  Fora  most  unjust  and  unfavor- 
able view). 

INTRODUCTION  to  Globe  Ed.  of  Milton. 

GAIUDNEU'S  Puritan  Revolution.    (Epochs  of  Modern  History). 

T.  H.  GREEN'S  Lectures  on  English  Commonwealth,  Vol.  III. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  OUTLINE  OP  THE 
LIFE  OF  MILTON. 


1608.  Dec.  9,  John  Milton,  son  of  John  and  Sarah  Milton,  is 
born  in  Bread  Street,  Cheapside,  London. 

1619-1620  (approximate  date).  Under  the  tutelage  of  Thomas 
Young,  a  Puritan  teacher. 

1620  (?)-1624.    A  pupil  at  St.  Paul's,  London. 

1625-1632.  A  student  at  Christ's  College,  Cambridge,  where  he 
takes  respectively  the  B.  A.  and  M.A.  degrees.  (During  this  period 
\ve  have  two  notable  poems,  On  Shakespeare  and  Ode  on  the 
Nativity,  with  others  of  less  importance.) 

1632-1638.  Residence  with  his  parents  at  Horton.  (During  this 
period  occurs  the  death  of  his  mother;  also  all  the  poems  included 
in  this  book  are  written.) 

1638-1639.  Period  of  travel  on  the  Continent,  chiefly  in  Italy. 
(During  this  period  Italian  Sonnets.) 

1639.  Milton  a  school-teacher  in  London  (see  Tractate  on  Edu- 
cation). 

1641-1642.    Earliest  controversial  pamphlets, 

1643.  First  marriage  to  Mary  Powell. 

1644.  Divorce  pamphlets,      Publication  of  his  best  piece  of 
prose,  Areopagitica, 

1648-1649.     Secretary  of  Cromwell,  the  highest  office  in  the  new 
Commonwealth.     (Period  of  several  of  the  sonnets.) 
1651.    Publication  of  The  Defence  of  the  English  People. 
1654.    Milton  becomes  blind. 


xii  MILTON  LYRICS. 

1656.  Second  marriage  to  Catharine  Woodcock. 

1657.  Retirement  from  public  life. 

1660.  The  Restoration  of  Charles  II.  Milton  temporarily  in 
hiding. 

1663.  Third  marriage  to  Elizabeth  Minshull. 

1665.  Residence  in  Chalfont  during  the  London  Plague. 

1665.  Completion  of  Paradise  Lost. 

1665-1666.  The  composition  of  Paradise  Regained  and  Samson 
Agonistes. 

1667.  Publication  of  Paradise  Lost. 

1671.  Publication  of  Paradise  Regained  and  Samson  Agonistes. 

1674.  Nov.  8,  John  Milton  dies. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH. 


MILTON  and  the  first  American  book  *  were  born  in  the  same 
year,  1608.  In  England,  James  the  First  had  succeeded  Eliza- 
beth, the  High  Church  was  in  the  ascendant,  the  Puritans  in 
the  minority,  and  talk  was  rife  of  emigration  to  America. 
The  Gunpowder  Plot  had  been  recently  discovered  (1605), 
the  Scotch  were  settling  the  northern  part  of  Ireland,  and  the 
first  colonizations  from  England  were  being  made  in  India. 

Abroad,  the  last  of  the  Moors  had  been  driven  from  Spain, 
Cervantes  had  published  his  "Don  Quixote"  (1605),  Galileo 
was  being  persecuted  for  upholding  the  Copernican  system, 
Guido  was  producing  his  now  world-renowned  masterpieces, 
and  Rubens  was  studying  in  Italy. 

The  glory  of  the  Elizabethan  literature  was  yet  undimmed, 
for  Bacon  was  still  the  trusted  counsellor  of  the  kin^.  and 

O  ' 

Shakespeare  had  not  retired  to  Stratford  on  Avon ;  Ben  Jonson, 
Beaumont,  Fletcher,  Chapman,  Marston,  Dekker,  were  the 
4 ' applause  and  wonder"  of  the  stage;  and  Daniel,  Drayton, 
and  Donne,  by  much  weaker  work,  were  demonstrating  that 
there  was  great  opportunity  for  the  powers  of  a  new  lyric  poet. 
Like  Chaucer,  Spenser,  Ben  Jonson,  Pope,  Browning,  and 
Ruskin,  Milton's  eyes  looked  first  on  the  scenes  of  the  largest 
city  of  the  world ;  but  at  that  date  it  was  not  the  London  of 
*  A  True  Relation  of  Virginia  by  Capt.  John  Smith, 
1 


2  MILTON  LYRICS. 

two  millions,  but  a  Boston-sized  city  of  a  few  hundred  thou- 
sands. In  the  very  heart  of  it  was  Milton's  home  in  Bread 
Street,  not  two  minutes'  walk  from  Mermaid  Tavern,  immor- 
talized by  the  presence  of  Shakespeare,  Ben  Jonson,  Beaumont, 
and  Fletcher,  and  the  song  of  Keats  beginning :  — 

"  Souls  of  poets  dead  and  gone, 
What  Elysium  have  ye  known, 
Happy  field  or  mossy  cavern, 
Choicer  than  the  Mermaid  Tavern  ?" 

Nor  was  it  more  than  five  minutes  to  St.  Paul's  Churchyard, 
and  all  the  life  and  bustle  of  Cheapside. 

Milton's  parentage  is  even  more  interesting  than  that  of 
Shakespeare,  since  we  can  early  trace  in  the  epic  poet,  physi- 
cal, intellectual,  and  spiritual  traits  that  must  have  been  a 
direct  inheritance,  as  is  instanced  in  his  love  of  music,  his 
Puritan  predilections,  his  religious  faith,  and  unfortunately  his 
tendency  to  weak  vision  that  finally  resulted  in  total  blind- 
ness. 

Milton  has  consciously  or  unconsciously  drawn  his  own  child- 
portrait  in  his  description  of  the  childhood  of  Jesus :  — 

"  When  I  was  yet  a  child  no  childish  play 
To  me  was  pleasing;  all  my  mind  was  set 
Serious  to  learn  and  know,  and  thence  to  do 
What  might  be  public  good;  myself  I  thought 
Born  to  that  end,  born  to  promote  all  truth, 
All  righteous  things." 

Paradise  Regained,  Book  I.,  201-206. 

Milton's  youthful  beauty  was  so  distinguished  that  he  was 
painted  when  only  a  child  of  ten,  by  the  famous  artist  Jansen, 
who  gives  us  an  ideal  picture  of  the  poet-child.  Thus,  in  a 
household  full  of  Puritan  austerities,  but  softened  and  refined 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  3 

by  the  frequent  visits  of  artistic  musical  friends  who  found 
delight  in  the  madrigal  as  well  as  the  psalm,  Milton  grew 
to  early  manhood. 

In  reviewing  Milton's  life,  it  looks  very  much  as  if  Milton 
gravely  resolved  to  be  a  great  man  and  achieved  it.  At  eleven 
he  had  paraphrased  the  psalm  we  still  sing  in  our  churches,  — 

"Let  us  with  a  gladsome  inind 
Praise  the  Lord,  for  he  is  kind; " 

thus  illustrating  at  the  start  his  religious  passion.  At  this 
time  he  was  preparing  for  college  at  St.  Paul's,  or  was  one  of 
"  Paul's  pigeons,"  as  the  popular  phrase  of  the  day  termed  all 
St.  Paul's  boys. 

At  this  early  age  he  is  mastering  Latin,  Hebrew,  Greek, 
French,  and  Italian,  and,  at  a  period  when  it  is  necessary  that 
a  maid  should  sit  up  with  him,  is  allowed  to  stay  up  till 
nearly  midnight  to  study. 

When,  at  sixteen  -years  of  age,  he  enters  Christ's  College, 
Cambridge,  his  acquirements  are  such  that,  as  in  Jonathan 
Edwards'  case  in  our  own  country,  it  would  have  seemed  fitting 
to  present  him  his  degree  at  the  outset.  He  is  of  so  delicate 
a  colouring,  and  so  gentle  of  deportment,  that  at  college  he 
wins  the  nickname  of  "  the  lady."  Wordsworth  in  his  Prelude, 
in  the  division  entitled  "  Cambridge,"  gives  us.a  charming  pen- 
portrait  of  Milton  at  college :  — 

"  Yea,  our  blind  poet  who  in  later  day 
Stood  almost  single,  uttering  odious  truth, 

I  seemed  to  see  him  here 
Familiarly,  and  in  his  scholar's  dress 
Bounding  before  me,  yet  a  stripling  youth, 
A  boy,  no  better,  with  his  rosy  cheeks 
Angelical,  keen  eye,  courageous  look, 
And  conscious  step  of  purity  and  pride." 


4  MILTON  LYRICS. 

A  description  of  Milton's  life  at  Cambridge  from  his  own 
hand,  is  to  be  found  in  Lycidas,  lines  23-36  of  this  edition. 

It  is  in  college  that  Milton's  muse  first  awakens ;  and  from 
this  time  we  have,  among  several  poems,  two  that  have  grown 
greater  with  age,  the  one,  doubtless  partly  for  its  noble  asso- 
ciation, an  epitaph  on  Shakespeare,  prefixed  to  the  Second 
Folio  of  the  dramatist ;  the  other,  for  its  masterly  power,  the 
famous  Ode  on  the  Nativity  of  Christ.  One  needs  to  read 
but  this  last-named  poem  to  learn  that  a  breadth  of  learning 
and  depth  of  wisdom,  joined  to  a  poet's  "  fine  frenzy,"  was 
proclaimed  in  the  under-graduate  —  and  that  "a  star  that 
dwelt  apart"  had  arisen  in  the  poetical  firmament  of  England. 

After  Milton  had  taken  his  degrees,  he  had  what  might  be 
well  coveted  for  every  thoughtful  young  graduate,  a  season  of 
rest  for  several  years,  of  which  he  says,  — 

"  At  my  father's  country  residence,  whither  he  had  retired 
to  pass  his  age,  I,  with  every  advantage  of  leisure,  spent  a 
complete  holiday  in  turning  over  the  Greek  and  Latin  writers ; 
not  but  that  I  sometimes  exchanged  the  country  for  the  town, 
either  for  the  purpose  of  buying  books,  or  for  that  of  learning 
something  new  in  mathematics  or  music,  in  which  sciences  I 
then  delighted." 

From  this  happy  interlude  in  a  life  that  was  destined  to 
know  the  stormiest  scenes,  ere  Milton  had  become  too  wise  in 
the  knowledge  of  the  world  and  somewhat  roughened  by  its 
asperities,  we  have  the  exquisite  lyrics  L' Allegro  and 
II  Penseroso,  the  matchless  masque  of  Comus,  and  the 
divine  elegy  of  Lycidas.  Given  Milton  the  environment  of 
our  late-lamented  Tennyson,  and  we  should  have  had  the  poet 
that  these  sweetest  of  lyrics  introduced  to  the  world,  but  we 
should  have  forever  failed  a  great  English  Epic. 

In  1638  Milton  says,  "  Having  passed  five  years  in  this  man- 
ner, after  my  mother's  death  I,  being  desirous  of  seeing  for- 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  5 

eign  lands,  and  especially  Italy,  went  abroad  with  one  servant, 
having  by  entreaty  obtained  my  father's  consent.'1 

He  travelled  in  elegant  leisure  with  distinguished  letters  of 
introduction  that  opened  to  him  the  doors  of  poets  and  artists. 
Most  of  his  time  was  passed  in  Italy,  while  a  proposed  three 
years1  absence  was  shortened  to  less  than  two,  because,  as  he 
said,  "  I  deemed  it  dishonourable  to  be  enjoying  myself  at  my 
ease  in  foreign  lands  while  my  countrymen  were  striking  a 
blow  for  freedom." 

This  freedom  was  from  the  tyranny  of  the  Stuart  dynasty, 
whose  doctrine  of  the  "  divine  right  of  kings  "  was  to  Milton  by 
nature  and  education  the  most  obnoxious  of  teachings. 

At  the  end  of  his  journey  Milton  writes  in  his  journal,  "I 
again  take  God  to  witness  that  in  all  those  places  where  so 
many  things  are  considered  lawful,  I  lived  sound  and  untouched 
from  all  profligacy,  and  having  this  thought  perpetually  with 
me,  that,  though  I  might  escape  the  eyes  of  men,  I  certainly 
could  not  the  eyes  of  God." 

This  recalls  Wordsworth's  lines  with  reference  to  himself 
when  he  left  college:  — 

"  By  personal  ambition  unenslaved, 
Frugal  as  there  was  need,  and  tho'  self-willed, 
From  dangerous  passion  free." 

The  historical  chapter  that  follows  is  familiar  to  all,  the 
temporary  fall  of  the  Stuarts,  the  execution  of  King  Charles 
the  First,  the  rise  of  the  Cromwellian  party,  the  defeat  of 
Archbishop  Laud,  the  short-lived  period  of  the  Commonwealth 
(1649-1660),  and  the  Restoration  of  the  Stuarts  in  the  return 
of  Charles  the  Second  in  1660. 

Milton  was  not  hasty  in  allying  himself  with  the  Cromwell- 
ians,  but  for  several  years  lived  in  London,  first  as  a  school- 
teacher though  not  a  successful  one,  then  as  a  pamphlet- writer, 


6  MILTON  LYRICS. 

until  in  1648  we  find  him  the  Latin  Secretary  of  Cromwell,  and 
"  foremost  of  the  fore  "  in  pushing  the  schemes  for  making  Eng- 
land the  Monarchy,  England  the  Republican  Commonwealth. 
The  poet's  lyre  is  forgotten  save  now  and  then  the  "  strains, 
alas,  too  few"  whose  echo  lingers  in  the  sonnets  that  were 
pressed  into  the  service  of  the  state  during  this  period.  The 
"left  hand"  which  he  had  for  prose  is  never  idle,  and  pam- 
phlet follows  pamphlet  in  the  interests  of  national  and  eccle- 
siastical freedom. 

Freedom  in  social  life  is  illustrated  by  his  pamphlets  on 
Divorce,  in  religious  life  by  his  pamphlets  on  Ecclesiastical 
Liberty,  in  national  life  by  his  defence  of  the  execution  of  the 
king  that  made  him  the  most  talked-of  man  in  all  Europe. 
Caught  as  in  a  maelstrom,  he  gives  a  sigh  for  •«  days  that  are  no 
more  "  in  these  words :  "  I  may  one  day  hope  to  have  ye  again 
[his  studies]  in  a  still  time  when  there  shall  be  no  chidings ; 
not  in  these  noises." 

With  the  Restoration  came  quiet  enough  for  Milton.  To 
save  his  life,  his  friends  kept  him  at  first  in  close  hiding ;  but 
with  the  general  pardon  and  amnesty  proclaimed  by  Charles 
the  Second  he  again  ventured  into  the  world,  a  world  now  for 
him  a  world  of  darkness,  for  with  the  strain  of  the  Cromwell- 
ian  days  had  resulted  entire  loss  of  sight.  In  obscure  places 
at  Holborn,  Aldersgate,  Bunhill  Fields,  Chalfont,  he  lived  the 
remainder  of  his  days,  while  the  gay  court  of  the  Merry  Mon- 
arch forgot  the  most  kingly  soul  in  all  the  realm. 

He  had  three  times  married,  with  varying  fortunes  in  do- 
mestic life.  His  first  wife,  Mary  Powell,  was  the  mother  of 
his  three  daughters  •  it  is  to  his  second  wife,  Catharine  Wood- 
cock, the  sonnet  To  my  Deceased  Wife  is  addressed ;  his 
last  wife,  Elizabeth  Minshull,  survived  him. 

Wedded  to  books,  to  immortal  verse,  to  affairs  of  state,  it  is 
questioned  whether  any  of  the  three  found  in  Milton  even 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  1 

the  dominating  but  "  gracious  consort "  depicted  in  the  Para- 
dise Lost.  There  are  certainly  passages  in  Milton's  life  that 
are  not  admirable.  The  Milton  who  had  no  patience  with  his 
young  and  probably  thoughtless  wife,  emphasizing  by  his 
divorce  pamphlets  what  he  should  have  concealed  during  her 
brief  absence  from  him,  the  Milton  who  heaps  opprobrious 
epithets  on  his  enemies,  the  Milton  who  neither  understood 
nor  seemed  to  care  to  understand  his  daughters,  mentioning 
them  in  his  will  as  undutiful  and  unkind,  this  is  the  Milton 
one  would  take  less  pains  to  cultivate. 

Fallen  on  evil  days,  he  revived  an  ambition  of  his  youth  to 
write  "  a  work  not  to  be  raised  from  the  heat  of  youth  or  the 
vapours  of  wine,  not  to  be  obtained  of  dame  Memory  and  her 
siren  daughters,  but  by  devout  prayer  to  that  Eternal  Spirit 
that  can  enrich  with  all  utterance  and  knowledge,  and  send 
out  His  Seraphim  with  the  hallowed  fire  of  his  altar  to  touch 
and  purify  the  lips  of  whom  he  pleases.  To  this  must  be 
added  industrious  and  select  reading,  steady  observation,  and 
insight  into  all  seemly  arts  and  affairs." 

Such  a  work,  the  "  epic  of  a  lost  cause,"  appeared  in  Para- 
dise Lost,  a  poem  that  the  public,  as  Milton  craved,  would  not 
"willingly  let  die,"  although  the  partisan  spirit  of  the  times, 
and  the  ill  repute  of  the  author  in  the  eyes  of  the  court,  gave 
it  scant  recognition  till  years  after  his  death. 

It  is  said  that  Dr.  Johnson's  verdict  against  Milton  kept  at 
least  two  generations  from  reading  the  best  poet  of  the  age, 
although  in  all  times  he  has  had  "  fit  audience  though  few." 
Of  the  Restoration  he  demanded  far  too  much  learning  and 
sound  scholarship  to  find  popularity,  though  until  after  the 
glorious  Revolution,  when  the  liberal  party  took  him  up,  no 
poet  who  had  defended  regicide  had  the  smallest  chance  for 
fame.  But  it  was  renown  that  Milton  coveted,  and  for  that  a 
great  soul  can  wait  beyond  a  lifetime.  So  bitter  was  the  spirit 


8  MILTON  LYRICS. 

against  him,  that  it  was  as  late  as  1737  before  his  bust  found 
admission  to  Westminster  Abbey,  where  a  generation  before 
the  Dean  had  refused  admittance  to  an  inscription  for  John 
Phillips's  monument  because,  forsooth,  it  contained  a  reference 
to  Milton. 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  Paradise  Lost  as  a  justifica- 
tion of  the  ways  of  God  with  men,  as  a  specimen  of  the  purest 
blank  verse,  and  as  a  study  of  national  life  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  poem  is  invaluable. 

Paradise  Regained  shortly  followed,  and  Samson  Ago- 
nistes.  These  were  Milton's  latest  productions.  He  died  Nov. 
8,  1674,  nearly  sixty-seven  years  of  age,  having  lived  in  three 
of  the  most  significant  periods  of  English  History.  This  is, 
undoubtedly,  the  reason  that  we  may  study  three  Miltons,  — 
the  first,  the  Milton  before  the  Civil  War,  an  Elizabethan 
lyric  poet,  and  a  man  whose  perfection  of  culture  represents 
the  culture  not  only  of  England  but  of  Europe.  This  is  the 
Milton  of  the  following  pages ;  the  Milton  of  the  Civil  War, 
the  statesman  and  great  prose-writer  so  learned  in  the  lan- 
guages that  one  facetiously  remarked  of  him  that  a  second 
confusion  of  tongues  would  not  disturb  Milton,  since  he  would 
understand  them  all ;  Milton  the  old  blind  poet  of  the  days  of 
the  Restoration,  who  gave  England  her  noble  Epic. 

Says  that  prince  of  sound  critics,  Landor,  "  It  may  be  doubted 
whether  the  Creator  ever  created  one  altogether  so  great  as 
Milton,  taking  into  view  at  once  his  manly  virtues,  his  super- 
human genius,  his  zeal  for  truth,  for  true  piety,  true  freedom, 
his  eloquence  in  displaying  it,  his  contempt  of  personal  power, 
his  glory  and  exultation  in  his  country's." 

"My  mind,1"  says  Coleridge,  "  is  not  capable  of  forming  a 
more  august  conception  than  arises  from  the  contemplation  of 
this  great  man  in  his  later  days.  Poor,  sick,  blind,  slandered, 
persecuted  in  an  age  in  which  he  was  as  little  understood  by 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  9 

the  party  for  whom  as  by  that  against  whom  he  had  contended, 
and  among  men  before  whom  he  strode  so  far  as  to  dwarf 
himself  by  the  distance,  yet  still  listening  to  the  music  of  his 
own  thoughts,  or  if  additionally  cheered,  yet  cheered  only  by 
the  prophetic  faith  of  two  or  three  solitary  individuals,  he  did 
nevertheless 

"  Argue  not 

Against  Heaven's  hand  or  will,  nor  bate  a  jot 
Of  heart  or  hope;  but  still  bore  up  and  steered 
Eight  onward." 


LITERARY  CHARACTERISTICS. 


STYLE. 

"  Three  poets  in  three  distant  ages  born, 
Greece,  Italy,  and  England  did  adorn; 
The  first  in  loftiness  of  thought  surpassed, 
The  next  in  majesty,  in  both  the  last. 
The  force  of  Nature  could  no  further  go: 
To  make  a  third,  she  joined  the  other  two." 

—  Dry  den. 

In  an  age,  branded  to-day  for  its  lack  of  appreciation  of 
Shakespeare  and  Milton,  there  was  one  man  the  nearest  a 
great  poet  of  them  all  who  saw  that  the  reputation  of  these 
two  did  not  lie  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Restoration  Period. 

Of  Milton,  Dryden  said,  "  This  man  cuts  us  all  out  and  the 
ancients  too."  In  the  familiar  couplets  quoted  are  indicated  the 
chief  qualities  of  Milton's  style.  To  sublimity  and  majesty  may 
be  added  sweetness  and  strength  with  a  purity  of  diction  unat- 
tained  by  any  other  English  poet  up  to  his  time. 

VOCABULARY. 

The  vocabulary  of  Milton  is  second  in  copiousness  to  that  of 
Shakespeare  with  this  difference.  The  universal  interest  in 
humanity  of  the  dramatic  poet  gave  him  a  universal  vocabu- 
lary. Milton's  academic  culture  not  only  causes  him  to  use 
many  Latinized  words,  but  represses  his  spirit  and  makes  him 

10 


LITERARY  CHARCTERISTICS.  11 

sift  his  words,  electing  only  those  that  are  most  choice.  He 
is  said  to  have  used  about  eight  thousand  words.  Shake- 
speare uses  fifteen  thousand.  In  Shakespeare  sixty  per  cent 
are  Anglo-S^xon,  in  Milton  less  than  thirty-three ;  the  earlier 
poems  yield  a  much  higher  rate  of  native  words  than  those 
that  were  written  after  the  Civil  War.  This  is  easily  accounted 
for  when  we  recall  that  his  Secretaryship  was  a  Latin  Secre- 
taryship. 

VERSIFICATION. 

Milton's  versification  is  "musical  as  bright  Apollo's  lute." 
It  was  not  without  the  most  remunerative  results  in  his  poeti- 
cal work  that  he  had  listened  in  his  childhood  and  youth  to  the 
best  music,  and  in  later  years  made  it  "  a  refreshment  to  labori- 
ous days.1'  So  well  trained  is  his  ear,  that  he  affirmed  that 
the  lawlessness  of  Shakespeare's  blank  verse  placed  it  out  of 
the  conditions  necessary  for  its  creation ;  hence,  to  his  judg- 
ment it  was  not  properly  blank  verse.  His  perfect  rhythm  and 
rhyme  make  him  one  of  the  most  harmonious  poets  for  read- 
ing aloud ;  yet  his  verse  is  not  despotic  as  in  Swinburne,  and 
the  sense  and  sound,  like  a  flowing  and  ebbing  wave,  rise  and 
fall  together.  This  may  be  well  seen  in  some  of  his  sonnets, 
the  form  in  this  case  offering  the  best  opportunity  for  the 
wave  effect. 

For  the  most  part  Milton's  verse  is  iambic,  the  prevailing 
measure  of  English  verse. 


L' ALLEGRO  AND    IL  PENSEROSO. 


THE  composition  of  L1  Allegro  and  II  Penseroso  may  be 
assigned  to  the  early  years  of  the  residence  at  Horton,  prob- 
ably about  1632  or  1633.  That  he  had  not  yet  become  master 
of  the  Italian  in  which  he  afterwards  freely  wrote,  is  evidenced 
by  the  faulty  construction  of  the  word  Penseroso,  which  the 
Italians  disclaim  as  an  Italian  word. 

The  versification  is  mainly  in  octosyllabic  iambics,  with  occa- 
sionally a  trochaic  initial  verse.  Each  poem  opens  with  a  lyric 
whose  metre  is  varied.  The  perfect  majestic  sustained  rhythm 
of  Paradise  Lost  was  a  study  of  later  years. 

The  general  treatment  of  his  theme  is  not  original  with  Mil- 
ton. For  poems  akin  to  L' Allegro  and  II  Penseroso,  it  is 
worth  the  pains  to  read  Marlowe's  Passionate  Shepherd, 
Raleigh's  Nymph's  Reply,  and  other  contemporary  lyrics. 
The  two  poems  are  perfect  Elizabethan  in  naturalness,  vigour, 
and  spontaneity,  but  Puritan  in  moral  tone. 

These  odes  should  be  read  together,  as  they  were  doubt- 
less written  as  companion  pieces,  and,  as  a  study  of  parallels 
of  thought,  are  unexampled  in  English  poetry.  L7 Allegro  is 
a  view  of  nature,  man,  art,  and  books,  as  these  appear  to  the 
man  of  culture  when  he  is  filled  with  the  spirit  of  appreciative 
joy.  II  Penseroso  is  the  same  view  when  the  observer  is 

12 


L' ALLEGRO    AND  1L  PENSEROSO.  13 

in  a  mood  of  contemplative  sadness. .  In  the  one  poem  Milton 
invites  Mirth  to  be  the  companion  of  his  day,  and  from  the 
joyous  dawn  carolled  in  by  the  lark  takes  us  through  a  rustic 
day  to  a  social  evening  around  the  hearth,  with  the  later  hours 
given  to  the  poets  and  music. 

II  Penseroso  invites  Melancholy  to  be  her  "  guide,  philos- 
opher, and  friend,"  and  under  *'  the  wandering  moon1'  listens 
to  the  nightingale  in  solitary,  musing  Sleep,  induced  "in 
arched  walks  of  twilight  groves,"  a  slumber  dispelled  by 
religious  music  in  organ-tones,  until  the  mind  can  conceive  no 
higher  satisfaction  in  life  than  "  the  hairy  gown  and  mossy 
cell "  of  the  hermit. 

While  the  atmosphere  of  L' Allegro  is  distinctly  social, 
and  that  of  II  Penseroso  as  distinctly  solitary,  it  is  to  be 
noted  that  both  poems  find  the  climax  of  enjoyment  in  soli- 
tariness. 

Possibly  it  is  for  this  reason  that  II  Penseroso  is  popularly 
supposed  to  be  the  preferred  mood  of  the  poet,  for  undoubtedly 
the  poems  are  somewhat  autobiographic.  When  one  reads  the 
epitaph  on  Hobson,  the  carrier,  and  studies  carefully  the  poet's 
earlier  life,  he  is  forced,  however,  to  the  conclusion  that  Milton 
was  also  capable  of  the  gayer  disposition  until  the  Civil 
War  and  its  stern  events  fixed  a  mind  often  disposed  to 
cavalier  rhymes  and  light-hearted  impressions,  in  utter  serious- 
ness. 

It  is  a  pity  that  many  of  Milton's  critics  have  attempted  to 
destroy  the  pure  poetic  art  of  these  master-pieces  by  assuming 
that  the  ideal  scenery  portrayed  can  be  identified  with  Horton, 
Oxford,  or  Windsor.  Like  the  Forest  of  Arden,  the  grove 
in  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  the  enchanted  island  of  the 
Tempest,  the  landscape  pictures  of  L'Allegro  and  II 
Penseroso  existed  only  in  the  imagination  of  the  poet,  where 
gorgeous  towers  and  cloud-capped  palaces  might  be  created 


14  MILTON  LYRICS. 

at  will.  It  is  a  country,  too,  not  seen  by  the  rustic,  but  by 
the  scholarly,  artistic,  university-trained  Milton. 

A  good  comparative  analysis  of  these  two  poems  may  be 
found  in  Bell's  Edition,  "L'Allegro"  and  "II  Penseroso," 
page  48. 

These  two  poems  may  well  be  named,  Poems  of  Milton's 
period  of  hope.  The  great  Civil  War  destroyed  the  beautiful 
Elizabethan  style  as  it  also  ruined  much  fine  architecture,  and 
Milton's  earliest  style  went  with  it. 


FAMOUS  MASQUES  (FOR  COMPARISON). 


PEELE'S  Arraignment  of  Paris,  1584. 
BEN  JONSON'S  Masque  of  Oberon,  1611. 
CHAPMAN'S  Memorable  Masque,  1613. 
DANIEL'S  Hymen's  Triumph,  1613. 
SHIRLEY'S  Triumph  of  Peace,  1634. 
MILTON'S  Comus,  1634. 


COMUS. 


IN  no  Miltonic  poem  do  we  find  the  illustration  of  Mil- 
ton's musical  and  poetic  talent  combined  as  in  Comus. 
Comus  is  a  masque.  The  masque  is  something  between 
a  pageant  and  a  play ;  it  combines  recitative,  lyric  poetry, 
and  songs  with  music  and  dancing,  the  latter  and  lighter 
portions  of  the  entertainment  to  be  shared  by  the  guests. 

The  English  masque  was  an  Italian  importation.  In  Italy 
the  climate  and  outdoor  scenery  favored  extravagant  pageant 
and  procession ;  in  England  an  uncertain  sky  made  it  neces- 
sary that  the  larger  portion  of  the  entertainment  should  be 
under  cover;  hence  there  resulted  less  of  the  work  of  the 
mechanic,  the  scene-painter,  and  the  milliner,  and  more  of 
the  actor,  the  musician,  and  the  poet.  Thus  the  English 
raised  the  masque  to  the  dignity  of  literature,  and,  in  the 
imperfection  of  English  music,  gave  it  substantial  value  as 
poetry. 

Despite  this  fact,  the  success  of  the  masque  depended  largely 
on  the  magnificence  of  the  spectacle  produced ;  and  the  rival 
merits  of  Inigo  Jones,  the  great  architect  of  masques,  and 
Ben  Jonson,  their  most  popular  poet,  ended  at  last  in  an 
estrangement  between  the  two  artists. 

Throughout  the  reign  of  James  the  First,  masques  were  the 
favorite  form  of  private  theatricals,  and  were  especially  in 

16 


COMUS.  17 

vogue  for  ceremonious  occasions,  as  a  marriage,  a  birthday, 
a  royal  visit,  or  a  noble  reception.  One  of  the  most  vivid 
descriptions  of  the  masque  may  be  found  in  Scott's  Kenil- 
worth,  where  the  novelist  describes  the  masque  presented  on 
the  occasion  of  Elizabeth's  royal  visit  to  Leicester. 

The  occasion  of  Milton's  masque  was  to  celebrate  the 
inauguration  of  John  Egerton,  Earl  of  Bridgewater,  as  Lord 
President  of  Wales,  when  he  took  possession  of  Ludlow 
Castle,  a  seat  full  of  historical  interest  for  its  association  with 
Edward  Fifth,  who  was  proclaimed  king  here.  In  later  time 
it  has  a  literary  interest  as  the  place  where  Samuel  Butler 
wrote  a  part  of  his  Hudibras ;  but  it  surely  has  had  no  greater 
glory  conferred  on  it  than  that  it  was  the  scene  of  Milton's 
Comus.  Though  written  in  the  decline  of  the  masque,  for 
delicacy  of  theme,  ingenuity  of  plot,  and  beauty  of  expression, 
this  masque  outrivals  the  best  of  Ben  Jonson.  It  was  accom- 
panied by  music  written  for  the  occasion  by  Milton's  friend, 
Henry  Lawes,  no  mean  musician  in  the  Earl's  household. 

A  first  reading  for  the  outline  of  the  story  will  reveal  the 
multiplied  opportunity  offered  by  the  plot  for  delightful  effects 
in  scenery  and  surprises  in  presentation.  As  an  idyllic  pastoral 
masque,  it  is  without  a  peer. 

As  the  children  of  the  earl  were  to  take  the  principal  parts, 
and  the  earl's  daughter  to  play  the  role  of  Lady  Alice,  this 
apotheosis  of  Virtue  was  a  singularly  delicate  and  fitting  com- 
pliment to  the  character  of  the  family  whose  incoming  the 
lyrical  drama  celebrated.  The  story  is  told  with  Doric  sim- 
plicity and  Attic  grace,  and  draped  as  severely  as  a  vestal 
virgin. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  mastery  of  the  righteous  will  over 
appetite  and  passion,  it  forms  an  excellent  contrast  to  the  story 
of  Faust,  and  is  often  considered  a  first  study  for  Milton's 
Satan,  as  well  as  the  key-note  to  his  revolutionary  sympathies. 


LYCID  AS. 


"  The  elegiac  poet  is  a  nightingale  sitting  in  darkness  cheering 
his  own  solitude  with  sweet  sounds."  —  SHELLEY. 

THE  word  * '  elegy  "  has  come  to  be  applied  to  any  serious  poetry 
tinged  with  sadness  and  reflecting  the  transitory  character  of 
life.  In  Milton's  time  the  meaning  was  less  widely  diffused, 
and  in  the  case  of  Lycidas,  we  have  a  distinct,  objective  lament 
for  the  loss  of  Edward  King,  a  young  college  friend,  who  was 
drowned  in  making  the  passage  from  Chester  to  Dublin  across 
the  treacherous  Irish  Sea.  Lycidas  was  the  last  poem  written 
by  Milton  before  starting  on  his  foreign  travels.  Its  earliest 
publication  was  in  a  collection  of  poems  prepared  as  a  tribute 
of  respect  to  their  dead  comrade  by  his  fellow-students ;  and 
Milton's 'contribution,  the  last  in  the  volume,  proved  to  be 
the  first  of  value,  and  indeed  the  only  one  whose  fame  has 
survived  time. 

Lycidas  is  a  pastoral  elegy  after  the  manner  of  The- 
ocritus and  Bion.  Shelley's  elegy  on  Keats  is  an  imitation  of 
the  same  masters,  and  the  two  can  be  profitably  compared ;  e.g., 
Shelley  also,  in  allegorical  figure,  represents  himself  as  a 
shepherd,  lamenting  the  death  of  a  brother  shepherd,  and 
follows  Milton  in  denying  death.  Milton  says, — 

18 


COMUS.  19 

"  Weep  no  more,  woeful  shepherds,  weep  no  more; 
For  Lycidas  your  sorrow  is  not  dead." 

Shelley  says,  in  his  Adonais,  — 

"  Peace,  peace,  he  is  not  dead,  he  doth  not  sleep  ! 
He  hath  awakened  from  the  dream  of  life." 

Both  view  nature  as  shadowed  by  this  bereavement.   Milton 
says,  — 

"  But,  O  the  heavy  change,  now  thou  art  gone, 
1  Now  thou  art  gone  and  never  must  return  ; 

Thee,  Shepherd,  thee  the  woods  and  desert  caves 
With  wild  thyme  and  the  gadding  vine  o'ergrown, 
And  all  their  echoes  mourn." 

Shelley  repeats,  — 

"Lost  Echo  sits  amid  the  voiceless  mountains 
And  feeds  her  grief  with  his  remembered  lay." 


Milton  the  staunch  pnrifcin^  and  Shelley  the  atheist,  falsely 
so-called,  take  alike  a  pantheistic  view. 
Milton  says,  — 

"  Now  Lycidas,  the  shepherds  weep  no  more; 
Henceforth  thou  art  the  genius  of  the  shore 
In  thy  large  recompense,  and  shalt  be  good, 
To  all  that  wander  in  that  perilous  flood." 

Shelley,  — 

1  1  He  is  made  one  with  Nature.    There  is  heard, 
His  voice  in  all  her  music." 

The  happy  use  of  figures,  flowers,  music,  in  this  poem  may 
be  made  a  compensating  study.    In  the  latter  comparison, 


20  MILTON  LYRICS. 

Arnold's  Thyrsis,  and  William  Watson's  "Lachrymae  Mu- 
sarum,"  will  be  found  full  of  imitative  passages.  Nor  will 
a  wise  teacher  omit  the  words  replete  with  prophecy  found 
in  the  famous  diatribe  included  between  lines  108-131,  a 
digression  surely,  but  a  passage  full  of  power,  the  more  sig- 
nificant when  compared  with  those  sweeter  lines  that  are  like 
the  wind  sweeping  across  the  strings  of  an  JSolian  harp. 


L'ALLEGRO. 


HENCE,  loathed  Melancholy, 

Of  Cerberus  and  blackest  Midnight  born 
In  Stygian  cave  forlorn 

'Mongst  horrid  shapes,  and  shrieks,  and  sights  unholy  ! 
Find  out  some  uncouth  cell, 

Where  brooding  Darkness  spreads  his  jealous  wings, 
And  the  night  raven  sings ; 

There,  under  ebon  shades  and  low-browed  rocks, 
As  ragged  as  thy  locks, 

In  dark  Cimmerian  desert  ever  dwell.  10 

But  come,  thou  Goddess  fair  and  free, 
In  heaven  yclept  Euphrosyne, 
And  by  men  heart-easing  Mirth ; 
Whom  lovely  Venus,  at  a  birth, 
With  two  sister  Graces  more, 
To  ivy -crowned  Bacchus  bore  : 
Or  whether  (as  some  sager  sing) 
The  frolic  wind  that  breathes  the  spring, 
Zephyr,  with  Aurora  playing, 

As  he  met  her  once  a-Maying,  20 

There,  on  beds  of  violets  blue, 
And  fresh-blown  roses  washed  in  dew, 

21 


22  MILTON  LYRICS. 

Filled  her  with  thee,  a  daughter  fair, 
So  buxom,  blithe,  and  debonair. 

Haste  thee,  Nymph,  and  bring  with  thee 
Jest  and  youthful  Jollity, 
Quips  and  Cranks  and  wanton  Wiles, 
Nods  and  Becks  and  wreathed  Smiles, 
Such  as  hang  on  Hebe's  cheek, 

And  love  to  live  in  dimple  sleek  ;  30 

Sport  that  wrinkled  Care  derides, 
And  Laughter  holding  both  his  sides. 
Come,  and  trip  it,  as  you  go, 
On  the  light  fantastic  toe ; 
And  in  thy  right  hand  lead  with  thee 
The  mountain  nymph,  sweet  Liberty  ; 
And  if  I  give  thee  honour  due, 
Mirth,  admit  me  of  thy  crew, 
To  live  with  her,  and  live  with  thee, 
In  unreproved  pleasures  free ;  40 

To  hear  the  lark  begin  his  flight, 
And,  singing,  startle  the  dull  night, 
From  his  watch-tower  in  the  skies, 
Till  the  dappled  dawn  doth  rise ; 
Then  to  come,  in  spite  of  sorrow, 
And  at  my  window  bid  good-morrow, 
Through  the  sweetbriar  or  the  vine, 
Or  the  twisted  eglantine  ; 
While  the  cock,  with  lively  din, 

Scatters  the  rear  of  darkness  thin ;  50 

And  to  the  stack,  or  the  barn  door, 
Stoutly  struts  his  dames  before  : 


L'ALLEGRO.  23 

Oft  listening  how  the  hounds  and  horn 

Cheerly  rouse  the  slumbering  morn, 

From  the  side  of  some  hoar  hill, 

Through  the  high  wood  echoing  shrill : 

Some  time  walking,  not  unseen, 

By  hedgerow  elms,  on  hillocks  green, 

Eight  against  the  eastern  gate 

Where  the  great  Sun  begins  his  state,  60 

Eobed  in  flames  and  amber  light, 

The  clouds  in  thousand  liveries  dight ; 

While  the  ploughman,  near  at  hand, 

Whistles  o'er  the  furrowed  land, 

And  the  milkmaid  singeth  blithe, 

And  the  mower  whets  his  scythe, 

And  every  shepherd  tells  his  tale 

Under  the  hawthorn  in  the  dale. 

Straight  mine  eye  hath  caught  new  pleasures, 
Whilst  the  landscape  round  it  measures  :  70 

Eusset  lawns,  and  fallows  grey, 
Where  the  nibbling  flocks  do  stray  ; 
Mountains  on  whose  barren  breast 
The  labouring  clouds  do  often  rest ; 
Meadows  trim,  with  daisies  pied ; 
Shallow  brooks,  and  rivers  wide ; 
Towers  and  battlements  it  sees 
Bosomed  high  in  tufted  trees, 
Where  perhaps  some  beauty  lies, 

The  cynosure  of  neighbouring  eyes.  80 

Hard  by,  a  cottage  chimney  smokes 
From  betwixt  two  aged  oaks, 


24  MILTON  LYRICS. 

Where  Corydon  and  Thyrsis  met 

Are  at  their  savoury  dinner  set 

Of  herbs  and  other  country  messes, 

Which  the  neat-handed  Phillis  dresses  ; 

And  then  in  haste  her  bower  she  leaves, 

With  Thestylis  to  bind  the  sheaves ; 

Or,  if  the  earlier  season  lead, 

To  the  tanned  haycock  in  the  mead.  90 

Sometimes,  with  secure  delight, 
The  upland  hamlets  will  invite, 
When  the  merry  bells  ring  round, 
And  the  jocund  rebecks  sound 
To  many  a  youth  and  many  a  maid 
Dancing  in  the  chequered  shade, 
And  young  and  old  come  forth  to  play 
On  a  sunshine  holiday, 
Till  the  livelong  daylight  fail : 

Then  to  the  spicy  nut-brown  ale,  100 

With  stories  told  of  many  a  feat, 
How  Faery  Mab  the  junkets  eat. 
She  was  pinched,  and  pulled,  she  said, 
And  he,  by  Friar's  lantern  led, 
Tells  how  the  drudging  goblin  sweat 
To  earn  his  cream-bowl  duly  set, 
When  in  one  night,  ere  glimpse  of  morn, 
His  shadowy  flail  hath  threshed  the  corn 
That  ten  day-labourers  could  not  end ; 
Then  lies  him  down,  the  lubber  fiend,  110 

And,  stretched  out  all  the  chimney's  length, 
Basks  at  the  fire  his  hairy  strength, 


VALLEGRO.  25 

Ere  the  first  cock  his  matin  rings, 
And  crop-full  out  of  doors  he  flings. 
Thus  done  the  tales,  to  bed  they  creep, 
By  whispering  winds  soon  lulled  asleep. 

Towered  cities  please  us  then, 
And  the  busy  hum  of  men, 
Where  throngs  of  knights  and  barons  bold, 
In  weeds  of  peace,  high  triumphs  hold,  120 

With  store  of  ladies,  whose  bright  eyes 
Eain  influence,  and  judge  the  prize 
Of  wit  or  arms,  while  both  contend 
To  win  her  grace  whom  all  commend. 
There  let  Hymen  oft  appear 
In  saffron  robe,  with  taper  clear, 
And  pomp,  and  feast,  and  revelry, 
With  mask,  and  antique  pageantry ; 
Such  sights  as  youthful  poets  dream 
On  summer  eves  by  haunted  stream.  130 

Then  to  the  well-trod  stage  anon, 
If  Jonson's  learned  sock  be  on, 
Or  sweetest  Shakespeare,  Fancy's  child, 
Warble  his  native  wood-notes  wild. 

And  ever,  against  eating  cares, 
Lap  me  in  soft  Lydian  airs, 
Married  to  immortal  verse, 
Such  as  the  meeting  soul  may  pierce, 
In  notes  with  many  a  winding  bout 
Of  linked  sweetness  long  drawn  out,  140 

With  wanton  heed  and  giddy  cunning, 
The  melting  voice  through  mazes  running, 


26  MILTON  LYRICS. 

Untwisting  all  the  chains  that  tie 

The  hidden  soul  of  harmony ; 

That  Orpheus'  self  may  heave  his  head 

From  golden  slumber  on  a  bed 

Of  heaped  Elysian  flowers,  and  hear 

Such  strains  as  would  have  won  the  ear 

Of  Pluto  to  have  quite  set  free 

His  half-regained  Eurydice.  150 

These  delights  if  thou  canst  give, 
Mirth,  with  thee  I  mean  to  live. 


IL  PENSEROSO. 


HENCE,  vain  deluding  Joys, 

The  brood  of  Folly  without  father  bred  ! 
How  little  you  bested, 

Or  fill  the  fixed  niind  with  all  your  toys ! 
Dwell  in  some  idle  brain, 

And  fancies  fond  with  gaudy  shapes  possess, 
As  thick  and  numberless 

As  the  gay  motes  that  people  the  sun-beams, 
Or  likest  hovering  dreams, 

The  fickle  pensioners  of  Morpheus7  train.  10 

But  hail !  thou  Goddess  sage  and  holy  ! 

Hail,  divinest  Melancholy ! 
Whose  saintly  visage  is  too  bright 
To  hit  the  sense  of  human  sight, 
And  therefore  to  our  weaker  view 
Overlaid  with  black,  staid  Wisdom's  hue ; 
Black,  but  such  as  in  esteem 
Prince  Memnon's  sister  might  beseem, 
Or  that  starred  Ethiop  queen  that  strove 
To  set  her  beauty's  praise  above  20 

27 


28  MILTON  LYRICS. 

The  Sea-Nymphs,  and  their  powers  offended. 

Yet  thou  art  higher  far  descended : 

Thee  bright-haired  Vesta  long  of  yore 

To  solitary  Saturn  bore  ; 

His  daughter  she ;  in  Saturn's  reign 

Such  mixture  was  not  held  a  stain. 

Oft  in  glimmering  bowers  and  glades 

He  met  her,  and  in  secret  shades 

Of  woody  Ida's  inmost  grove, 

While  yet  there  was  no  fear  of  Jove.  30 

Come,  pensive  Nun,  devout  and  pure, 
Sober,  steadfast,  and  demure, 
All  in  a  robe  of  darkest  grain, 
Flowing  with  majestic  train, 
A  sable  stole  of  cypress  lawn, 
Over  thy  decent  shoulders  drawn. 
Come ;  but  keep  thy  wonted  state, 
With  even  step,  and  musing  gait, 
And  looks  commercing  with  the  skies, 
Thy  rapt  soul  sitting  in  thine  eyes  :  40 

There,  held  in  holy  passion  still, 
Forget  thyself  to  marble,  till 
With  a  sad  leaden  downward  cast 
Thou  fix  them  on  the  earth  as  fast 
And  join  with  thee  calm  Peace  and  Quiet, 
Spare  Fast,  that  oft  with  gods  doth  diet, 
And  hears  the  Muses  in  a  ring 
Aye  round  about  Jove's  altar  sing ; 
And  add  to  these  retired  Leisure, 
That  in  trim  gardens  takes  his  pleasure ;  50 


IL  PENSEROSO.  29 

But,  first  and  chiefest,  with  thee  bring 
Him  that  yon  soars  on  golden  wing, 
Guiding  the  fiery-wheeled  throne, 
The  cherub  Contemplation ; 
And  the  mute  Silence  hist  along, 
'Less  Philomel  will  deign  a  song, 
In  her  sweetest,  saddest  plight, 
Smoothing  the  rugged  brow  of  Night, 
While  Cynthia  checks  her  dragon  yoke 
Gently  o'er  the  accustomed  oak.  60 

Sweet  bird,  that  shunn'st  the  noise  of  folly, 
Most  musical,  most  melancholy  ! 
Thee,  chauntress,  oft  the  woods  among 
I  woo,  to  hear  thy  even-song ; 
And,  missing  thee,  I  walk  unseen 
On  the  dry  smooth-shaven  green, 
To  behold  the  wandering  moon, 
Riding  near  her  highest  noon, 
Like  one  that  had  been  led  astray 
Through  the  heaven's  wide  pathless  way,  70 

And  oft,  as  if  her  head  she  bowed, 
Stooping  through  a  fleecy  cloud. 
Oft,  on  a  plat  of  rising  ground, 
I  hear  the  far-off  curfew  sound, 
Over  some  wide-watered  shore, 
Swinging  slow  with  sullen  roar  ; 
Or,  if  the  air  will  not  permit, 
Some  still  removed  place  will  fit, 
Where  glowing  embers  through  the  room 
Teach  light  to  counterfeit  a  gloom  80 


30  MILTON  LYRICS. 

Far  from  all  resort  of  mirth, 

Save  the  cricket  on  the  hearth, 

Or  the  bellman's  drowsy  charm 

To  bless  the  doors  from  nightly  harm. 

Or  let  my  lamp,  at  midnight  hour, 

Be  seen  in  some  high  lonely  tower, 

Where  I  may  oft  outwatch  the  Bear, 

With  thrice-great  Hermes,  or  unsphere 

The  spirit  of  Plato,  to  unfold 

What  worlds  or  what  vast  regions  hold  90 

The  immortal  mind,  that  hath  forsook 

Her  mansion  in  this  fleshly  nook ; 

And  of  those  demons  that  are  found 

In  fire,  air,  flood,  or  under  ground, 

Whose  power  hath  a  true  consent 

With  planet  or  with  element. 

Sometime  let  gorgeous  Tragedy 

In  sceptred  pall  come  sweeping  by, 

Presenting  Thebes,  or  Pelops7  line, 

Or  the  tale  of  Troy  divine,  100 

Or  what  (though  rare)  of  later  age 

Ennobled  hath  the  buskined  stage. 

But,  0  sad  Virgin !  that  thy  power 
Might  raise  Musaeus  from  his  bower; 
Or  bid  the  soul  of  Orpheus  sing 
Such  notes  as,  warbled  to  the  string, 
Drew  iron  tears  down  Pluto's  cheek, 
And  made  Hell  grant  what  love  did  seek ; 
Or  call  up  him  that  left  half-told 
The  story  of  Cainbuscan  bold,  .    no 


IL  PENSEROSO.  31 

Of  Camball,  and  of  Algarsife, 

And  who  had  Canace  to  wife, 

That  owned  the  virtuous  ring  and  glass, 

And  of  the  wondrous  horse  of  brass 

On  which  the  Tartar  king  did  ride ; 

And  if  aught  else  great  bards  beside 

In  sage  and  solemn  tunes  have  sung, 

Of  turneys,  and  of  trophies  hung, 

Of  forests,  and  enchantments  drear, 

Where  more  is  meant  than  meets  the  ear.  120 

Thus,  Night,  oft  see  me  in  thy  pale  career, 
Till  civil-suited  Morn  appear, 
Not  tricked  and  frounced,  as  she  was  wont 
With  the  Attic  boy  to  hunt, 
But  kerchieft  in  a  comely  cloud, 
While  rocking  winds  are  piping  loud, 
Or  ushered  with  a  shower  still, 
When  the  gust  hath  blown  his  fill, 
Ending  on  the  rustling  leaves, 

With  minute-drops  from  off  the  eaves.  130 

And,  when  the  sun  begins  to  fling 
His  flaring  beams,  me,  Goddess,  bring 
To  arched  walks  of  twilight  groves, 
And  shadows  brown,  that  Sylvan  loves, 
Of  pine,  or  monumental  oak, 
Where  the  rude  axe  with  heaved  stroke 
Was  never  heard  the  nymphs  to  daunt, 
Or  fright  them  from  their  hallowed  haunt. 
There,  in  close  covert,  by  some  brook, 
Where  no  profaner  eye  may  look,  140 


32  MILTON  LYRICS. 

Hide  me  from  day's  garish,  eye, 
While  the  bee  with  honied  thigh, 
That  at  her  flowery  work  doth  sing, 
And  the  waters  murmuring, 
With  such  consort  as  they  keep, 
Entice  the  dewy-feathered  Sleep. 
And  let  some  strange  mysterious  dream 
Wave  at  his  wings,  in  airy  stream 
Of  lively  portraiture  displayed, 
Softly  on  my  63relids  laid ;  160 

And,  as  I  wake,  sweet  music  breathe 
Above,  about,  or  underneath, 
Sent  by  some  Spirit  to  mortals  good, 
Or  the  unseen  Genius  of  the  wood. 
But  let  my  due  feet  never  fail 
To  walk  the  studious  cloister's  pale, 
And  love  the  high  embowed  roof, 
With  antique  pillars  massy-proof, 
'-And  storied  windows  richly  dight, 
Casting  a  dim  religious  light.  160 

There  let  the  pealing  organ  blow, 
To  the  full-voiced  quire  below, 
In  service  high,  and  anthems  clear, 
As  may  with  sweetness,  through  mine  ear, 
Dissolve  me  into  ectasies, 
And  bring  all  Heaven  before  mine  eyes. 

And  may  at  last  my  weary  age 
Find  out  the  peaceful  hermitage, 
The  hairy  gown  and  mossy  cell, 
Where  I  may  sit  and  rightly  spell  170 


IL  PENSEROSO.  33 


Of  every  star  that  heaven  doth  shew, 
And  every  herb  that  sips  the  dew, 
Till  old  experience  do  attain 
To  something  like  prophetic  strain. 

These  pleasures,  Melancholy,  give ; 
And  I  with  thee  will  choose  to  live. 


COMUS. 


A    MASQUE. 

Presented  at  Ludlow  Castle,  in  1634,  before  John,  Earl  of  Bridgewater, 
then  President  of  Wales. 

THE  PERSONS. 


The  Attendant  Spirit,  afterwards 

in  the  habit  of  Thyrsis. 
Comus,  with  his  Crew. 


First  Brother. 
Second  Brother. 
Sabrina,  the  Nymph. 


The  Lady. 

THE  CHIEF  PERSONS  WHICH  PRESENTED  WERE  — 

The  Lord  Brackley.  |  Mr.  Thos.  Egerton,  his  brother. 

The  Lady  Alice  Egerton. 

The  first  Scene  discovers  a  wild  wood. 
THE  ATTENDANT  SPIRIT  descends  or  enters. 

BEFORE  the  starry  threshold  of  Jove's  court 
My  mansion  is,  where  those  immortal  shapes 
Of  bright  aerial  spirits  live  insphered 
In  regions  mild  of  calm  and  serene  air, 
Above  the  smoke  and  stir  of  this  dim  spot 
Which  men  call  Earth,  and,  with  low-thoughted  care, 
Confined  and  pestered  in  this  pinfold  here, 
Strive  to  keep  up  a  frail  and  feverish  being, 
Unmindful  of  the  crown  that  Virtue  gives, 
After  this  mortal  change,  to  her  true  servants  10 

34 


COMUS.  35 

Amongst  the  enthroned  gods  on  sainted  seats. 
Yet  some  there  be  that  by  due  steps  aspire 
To  lay  their  just  hands  on  that  golden  key 
That  opes  the  palace  of  eternity. 
To  such  my  errand  is ;  and,  but  for  such, 
I  would  not  soil  these  pure  ambrosial  weeds 
With  the  rank  vapours  of  this  sin-worn  mould. 
But  to  my  task.     Neptune,  besides  the  sway 
Of  every  salt  flood  and  each  ebbing  stream, 
Took  in,  by  lot  'twixt  high  and  nether  Jove,  20 

Imperial  rule  of  all  the  sea-girt  isles 
That,  like  to  rich  and  various  gems,  inlay 
The  unadorned  bosom  of  the  deep  ; 
Which  he,  to  grace  his  tributary  gods, 
By  course  commits  to  several  government, 
And  gives  them  leave  to  wear  their  sapphire  crowns, 
And  wield  their  little  tridents.     But  this  Isle, 
The  greatest  and  the  best  of  all  the  main, 
He  quarters  to  his  blue-haired  deities  ; 
And  all  this  tract  that  fronts  the  falling  sun  30 

A  noble  Peer  of  mickle  trust  and  power 
Has  in  his  charge,  with  tempered  awe  to  guide 
An  old  and  haughty  nation,  proud  in  arms : 
Where  his  fair  offspring,  nursed  in  princely  lore, 
Are  coming  to  attend  their  father's  state, 
And  new-entrusted  sceptre.     But  their  way 
Lies  through  the  perplexed  paths  of  this  drear  wood, 
The  nodding  horror  of  whose  shady  brows 
Threats  the  forlorn  and  wandering  passenger ; 
And  here  their  tender  age  might  suffer  peril,  40 


36  MILTON  LYRICS. 

But  that,  by  quick  command  from  sovran  Jove, 
I  was  dispatched  for  their  defence  and  guard : 
And  listen  why,  for  I  will  tell  you  now 
What  never  yet  was  heard  in  tale  or  song, 
From  old  or  modern  bard,  in  hall  or  bower. 

Bacchus,  that  first  from  out  the  purple  grape 
Crushed  the  sweet  poison  of  misused  wine, 
After  the  Tuscan  mariners  transformed, 
Coasting  the  Tyrrhene  shore,  as  the  winds  listed, 
On  Circe's  island  fell.     (Who  knows  not  Circe,  50 

The  daughter  of  the  Sun,  whose  charmed  cup 
Whoever  tasted  lost  his  upright  shape, 
And  downward  fell  into  a  grovelling  swine  ?) 
This  Nymph  that  gazed  upon  his  clustering  locks, 
With  ivy  berries  wreathed,  and  his  blithe  youth, 
Had  by  him,  ere  he  parted  thence,  a  son 
Much  like  his  father,  but  his  mother  more, 
Whom  therefore  she  brought  up,  and  Comus  named : 
Who,  ripe  and  frolic  of  his  full-grown  age, 
Roving  the  Celtic  and  Iberian  fields,  60 

At  last  betakes  him  to  this  ominous  wood, 
And,  in  thick  shelter  of  black  shades  imbowered, 
Excels  his  mother  at  her  mighty  art ; 
Offering  to  every  weary  traveller 
His  orient  liquor  in  a  crystal  glass, 
To  quench  the  drouth  of  Phoebus  ;  which  as  they  taste 
(For  most  do  taste  through  fond  intemperate  thirst), 
Soon  as  the  potion  works,  their  human  countenance, 
The  express  resemblance  of  the  gods,  is  changed 
Into  some  brutish  form  of  wolf  or  bear,  70 


COMUS.  37 

Or  ounce  or  tiger,  hog,  or  bearded  goat, 

All  other  parts  remaining  as  they  were. 

And  they,  so  perfect  is  their  misery, 

Not  once  perceive  their  foul  disfigurement, 

But  boast  themselves  more  comely  than  before, 

And  all  their  friends  and  native  home  forget, 

To  roll  with  pleasure  in  a  sensual  sty. 

Therefore,  when  any  favoured  of  high  Jove 

Chances  to  pass  through  this  adventurous  glade, 

Swift  as  the  sparkle  of  a  glancing  star  80 

I  shoot  from  heaven,  to  give  him  safe  convoy, 

As  now  I  do.     But  first  I  must  put  off 

These  my  sky  robes,  spun  out  of  Iris'  woof, 

And  take  the  weeds  and  likeness  of  a  swain 

That  to  the  service  of  this  house  belongs, 

Who,  with  his  soft  pipe  and  smooth-dittied  song, 

Well  knows  to  still  the  wild  winds  when  they  roar, 

And  hush  the  waving  woods  ;  nor  of  less  faith, 

And  in  this  office  of  his  mountain  watch 

Likeliest,  and  nearest  to  the  present  aid  90 

Of  this  occasion.     But  I  hear  the  tread 

Of  hateful  steps ;  I  must  be  viewless  now. 

COMUS  enters,  with  a  charming-rod  in  one  hand,  his  glass 
in  the  other  ;  with  him  a  rout  of  monsters,  headed  like 
sundry  sorts  of  wild  beasts,  but  otherwise  like  men  and 
women,  their  apparel  glistering.  They  come  in  making 
a  riotous  and  unruly  noise,  with  torches  in  their  hands. 

COMUS.     The  star  that  bids  the  shepherd  fold 
Now  the  top  of  heaven  doth  hold  j 


38  MILTON  LYRICS. 

And  the  gilded  car  of  day 

His  glowing  axle  doth  allay 

In  the  steep  Atlantic  stream ; 

And  the  slope  sun  his  upward  beam 

Shoots  against  the  dusky  pole, 

Pacing  toward  the  other  goal  100 

Of  his  chamber  in  the  east. 

Meanwhile,  welcome  joy  and  feast, 

Midnight  shout  and  revelry, 

Tipsy  dance  and  jollity. 

Braid  your  locks  with  rosy  twine, 

Dropping  odours,  dropping  wine. 

Rigour  now  is  gone  to  bed ; 

And  Advice  with  scrupulous  head, 

Strict  Age,  and  sour  Severity, 

With  their  grave  saws,  in  slumber  lie.  HO 

We,  that  are  of  purer  fire, 

Imitate  the  starry  quire, 

Who  in  their  nightly  watchful  spheres, 

Lead  in  swift  round  the  months  and  years. 

The  sounds  and  seas,  with  all  their  finny  drove, 

Now  to  the  moon  in  wavering  morrice  move ; 

And  on  the  tawny  sands  and  shelves 

Trip  the  pert  fairies  and  the  dapper  elves. 

By  dimpled  brook  and  fountain-brim, 

The  wood-nymphs,  decked  with  daisies  trim,  120 

Their  merry  wakes  and  pastimes  keep  : 

What  hath  night  to  do  with  sleep  ? 

Night  hath  better  sweets  to  prove ; 

Venus  now  wakes,  and  wakens  Love. 


COMUS.  39 

Come,  let  us  our  rites  begin ; 

'Tis  only  daylight  that  makes  sin, 

Which  these  dun  shades  will  ne'er  report. 

Hail,  goddess  of  nocturnal  sport, 

Dark-veiled  Cotytto,  to  whom  the  secret  flame 

Of  midnight  torches  burns  !  mysterious  dame,  130 

That  ne'er  art  called  but  when  the  dragon  womb 

Of  Stygian  darkness  spets  her  thickest  gloom, 

And  makes  one  blot  of  all  the  air ! 

Stay  thy  cloudy  ebon  chair, 

Wherein  thou  ridest  with  Hecat ',  and  befriend 

Us  thy  vowed  priests,  till  utmost  end 

Of  all  thy  dues  be  done,  and  none  left  out ; 

Ere  the  blabbing  eastern  scout, 

The  nice  Morn  on  the  Indian  steep, 

From  her  cabined  loop-hole  peep,  140 

And  to  the  tell-tale  Sun  descry 

Our  concealed  solemnity. 

Come,  knit  hands,  and  beat  the  ground 

In  a  light  fantastic  round. 

The  Measure. 

Break  off,  break  off !  I  feel  the  different  pace 

Of  some  chaste  footing  near  about  this  ground. 

Run  to  your  shrouds  within  these  brakes  and  trees ; 

Our  number  may  affright.     Some  virgin  sure 

(For  so  I  can  distinguish  by  mine  art) 

Benighted  in  these  woods  !    Now  to  my  charms,          150 

And  to  my  wily  trains :  I  shall  ere  long 

Be  well  stocked  with  as  fair  a  herd  as  grazed 


40  MILTON  LYRICS. 

About  iny  mother  Circe.     Thus  I  hurl 

My  dazzling  spells  into  the  spongy  air, 

Of  power  to  cheat  the  eye  with  blear  illusion, 

And  give  it  false  presentments,  lest  the  place 

And  my  quaint  habits  breed  astonishment, 

And  put  the  damsel  to  suspicious  flight ; 

Which  must  not  be,  for  that's  against  my  course. 

I,  under  fair  pretence  of  friendly  ends,  160 

And  well-placed  words  of  glozing  courtesy, 

Baited  with  reasons  not  implausible, 

Wind  me  into  the  easy-hearted  man, 

And  hug  him  into  snares.     When  once  her  eye 

Hath  met  the  virtue  of  this  magic  dust, 

I  shall  appear  some  harmless  villager, 

Whom  thrift  keeps  up  about  his  country  gear. 

But  here  she  comes  ;  I  fairly  step  aside, 

And  hearken,  if  I  may  her  business  hear. 

The  Lady  enters. 

LADY.   This  way  the  noise  was,  if  mine  ear  be  true,   170 
My  best  guide  now.     Methought  it  was  the  sound 
Of  riot  and  ill-managed  merriment, 
Such  as  the  jocund  flute  or  gamesome  pipe 
Stirs  up  among  the  loose  unlettered  hinds, 
When,  for  their  teeming  flocks,  and  granges  full, 
In  wanton  dance  they  praise  the  bounteous  Pan, 
And  thank  the  gods  amiss.     I  should  be  loth 
To  meet  the  rudeness  and  swilled  insolence 
Of  such  late  wassailers  ;  yet,  oh  !  where  else 
Shall  I  inform  my  unacquainted  feet  180 


COMUS.  41 

In  the  blind  mazes  of  this  tangled  wood  ? 

My  brothers,  when  they  saw  me  wearied  out 

With  this  long  way,  resolving  here  to  lodge 

Under  the  spreading  favour  of  these  pines, 

Stepped,  as  they  said,  to  the  next  thicket-side, 

To  bring  me  berries,  or  such  cooling  fruit 

As  the  kind  hospitable  woods  provide. 

They  left  me  then  when  the  grey-hooded  Even, 

Like  a  sad  votarist  in  palmer's  weed, 

Eose  from  the  hindmost  wheels  of  Phoebus'  wain.       190 

But  where  they  are,  and  why  they  came  not  back, 

Is  now  the  labour  of  my  thoughts.     'Tis  likeliest 

They  had  engaged  their  wandering  steps  too  far  ; 

And  envious  darkness,  ere  they  could  return, 

Had  stole  them  from  me.     Else,  0  thievish  Night, 

Why  shouldst  thou,  but  for  some  felonious  end, 

In  thy  dark  lantern  thus  close  up  the  stars 

That  Nature  hung  in  heaven,  and  filled  their  lamps 

With  everlasting  oil,  to  give  due  light 

To  the  misled  and  lonely  traveller  ?  200 

This  is  the  place,  as  well  as  I  may  guess, 

Whence  even  now  the  tumult  of  loud  mirth 

Was  rife,  and  perfect  in  my  listening  ear ; 

Yet  nought  but  single  darkness  do  I  find. 

What  might  this  be  ?     A  thousand  fantasies 

Begin  to  throng  into  my  memory, 

Of  calling  shapes,  and  beckoning  shadows  dire, 

And  airy  tongues  that  syllable  men's  names 

On  sands  and  shores  and  desert  wildernesses. 

These  thoughts  may  startle  well,  but  not  astound        210 


42  MILTON  LYRICS. 

The  virtuous  mind,  that  ever  walks  attended 
By  a  strong  siding  champion,  Conscience. 

0  welcome,  pure-eyed  Faith,  white-handed  Hope, 
Thou  hovering  angel  girt  with  golden  wings, 
And  thou  unblemished  form  of  Chastity ! 

1  see  ye  visibly,  and  now  believe 

That  He,  the  Supreme  Good,  to  whom  all  things  ill 

Are  but  as  slavish  officers  of  vengeance, 

Would  send  a  glistering  guardian,  if  need  were, 

To  keep  my  life  and  honour  unassailed.  ...  220 

Was  I  deceived,  or  did  a  sable  cloud 

Turn  forth  her  silver  lining  on  the  night  ? 

I  did  not  err :  there  does  a  sable  cloud 

Turn  forth  her  silver  lining  on  the  night, 

And  casts  a  gleam  over  this  tufted  grove. 

I  cannot  hallo  to  my  brothers,  but 

Such  noise  as  I  can  make  to  be  heard  farthest 

I'll  venture ;  for  my  new-enlivened  spirits 

Prompt  me,  and  they  perhaps  are  not  far  off. 

SONG. 

Sweet  Echo,  sweetest  nymph,  that  liv'st  unseen  230 

Within  thy  airy  shell 
By  slow  Meander's  niargent  green, 
And  in  the  violet-embroidered  vale 

Where  the  love-lorn  nightingale 
Nightly  to  thee  her  sad  song  mourneth  well : 
Canst  thou  not  tell  me  of  a  gentle  pair 

That  likest  thy  Narcissus  are  ? 


COMUS.  43 

O,  if  thou  have 
Hid  them  in  some  flowery  cave, 

Tell  me  but  where,  240 

Sweet  Queen  of  Parley,  daughter  of  the  sphere  ! 
So  mayst  thou  be  translated  to  the  skies, 
And  give  resounding  grace  to  all  Heaven's  harmonies ! 

Enter  Comus. 

COMUS.   Can  any  mortal  mixture  of  earth's  mould 
Breathe  such  divine  enchanting  ravishment  ? 
Sure  something  holy  lodges  in  that  breast, 
And  with  these  raptures  moves  the  vocal  air 
To  testify  his  hidden  residence. 
How  sweetly  did  they  float  upon  the  wings 
Of  silence,  through  the  empty-vaulted  night,  250 

At  every  fall  smoothing  the  raven  down 
Of  darkness  till  it  smiled  !    I  have  oft  heard 
My  mother  Circe  with  the  Sirens  three, 
Amidst  the  flowery-kirtled  Naiades, 
Culling  their  potent  herbs  and  baleful  drugs, 
Who,  as  they  sung,  would  take  the  prisoned  soul, 
And  lap  it  in  Elysium :  Scylla  wept, 
And  chid  her  barking  waves  into  attention, 
And  fell  Chary bdis  murmured  soft  applause. 
Yet  they  in  pleasing  slumber  lulled  the  sense,  260 

And  in  sweet  madness  robbed  it  of  itself ; 
But  such  a  sacred  and  home-felt  delight, 
Such  sober  certainty  of  waking  bliss, 
I  never  heard  till  now.     I'll  speak  to  her, 
And  she  shall  be  my  queen.  —  Hail,  foreign  wonder ! 


44  MILTON  LYRICS. 

Whom  certain  these  rough  shades  did  never  breed, 

Unless  the  goddess  that  in  rural  shrine 

DwelPst  here  with  Pan  or  Sylvan,  by  blest  song 

Forbidding  every  bleak  unkindly  fog 

To  touch  the  prosperous  growth  of  this  tall  wood.       270 

LADY.     Nay,  gentle  shepherd,  ill  is  lost  that  praise 
That  is  addressed  to  unattending  ears. 
Not  any  boast  of  skill,  but  extreme  shift 
How  to  regain  my  severed  company, 
Compelled  me  to  awake  the  courteous  Echo 
To  give  me  answer  from  her  mossy  couch. 

COM.    What  chance,  good  lady,  hath  bereft  you  thus  ? 

LADY.     Dim  darkness  and  this  leafy  labyrinth. 

COM.  Could  that  divide  you  from  near-ushering  guides  ? 

LADY.     They  left  me  weary  on  a  grassy  turf.  280 

COMUS.     By  falsehood,  or  discourtesy,  or  why  ? 

LADY.    To  seek  i'  the  valley  some  cool  friendly  spring. 

COMUS.     And  left  your  fair  side  all  unguarded,  Lady  ? 

LADY.  They  were  but  twain,  and  purposed  quick  return. 

COMUS.    Perhaps  forestalling  night  prevented  them. 

LADY.     How  easy  my  misfortune  is  to  hit ! 

COMUS.     Imports  their  loss,  beside  the  present  need  ? 

LADY.     No  less  than  if  I  should  my  brothers  lose. 

COMUS.  Were  they  of  manly  prime,  or  youthful  bloom  ? 

LADY.  As  smooth  as  Hebe's  their  unrazored  lips.     290 

COMUS.     Two  such  I  saw,  what  time  the  laboured  ox 
In  his  loose  traces  from  the  furrow  came, 
And  the  swinked  hedger  at  his  supper  sat. 
I  saw  them  under  a  green  mantling  vine, 
That  crawls  along  the  side  of  yon  small  hill, 


COMUS.  '  45 

Plucking  ripe  clusters  from  the  tender  shoots ; 

Their  port  was  more  than  human,  as  they  stood. 

I  took  it  for  a  fairy  vision 

Of  some  gay  creatures  of  the  element, 

That  in  the  colours  of  the  rainbow  live,  300 

And  play  i'  the  plighted  clouds.     I  was  awe-strook, 

And  as  I  passed,  I  worshiped.     If  those  you  seek, 

It  were  a  journey  like  the  path  to  Heaven, 

To  help  you  find  them. 

LADY.  Gentle  villager, 

What  readiest  way  would  bring  me  to  that  place  ? 

COMUS.     Due  west  it  rises  from  this  shrubby  point. 

LADY.     To  find  that  out,  good  shepherd,  I  suppose, 
In  such  a  scant  allowance  of  star-light, 
Would  overtask  the  best  land-pilot's  art, 
Without  the  sure  guess  of  well-practised  feet.  310 

COMUS.     I  know  each  lane,  and  every  alley  green, 
Dingle,  or  bushy  dell  of  this  wild  wood, 
And  every  bosky  bourn  from  side  to  side, 
My  daily  walks  and  ancient  neighbourhood; 
And,  if  your  stray  attendance  be  yet  lodged 
Or  shroud  within  these  limits,  I  shall  know 
Ere  morrow  wake,  or  the  low-roosted  lark 
From  her  thatched  pallet  rouse.     If  otherwise 
I  can  conduct  you,  lady,  to  a  low 

But  loyal  cottage,  where  you  may  be  safe  320 

Till  further  quest. 

LADY.  Shepherd,  I  take  thy  word, 

And  trust  thy  honest-offered  courtesy, 
Which  oft  is  sooner  found  in  lowly  sheds, 


46  MILTON  LYRICS. 

With  smoky  rafters,  than  in  tapestry  halls 

And  courts  of  princes,  where  it  first  was  named, 

And  yet  is  most  pretended.     In  a  place 

Less  warranted  than  this,  or  less  secure, 

I  cannot  be,  that  I  should  fear  to  change  it. 

Eye  me,  blest  Providence,  and  square  my  trial 

To  my  proportioned  strength !     Shepherd,  lead  on.      330 

The  Two  Brothers. 

ELDER  BROTHER.     Unmuffle,  ye  faint  stars  ;  and  thou, 
That  wont'st  to  love  the  traveller's  benison,    [fair  moon, 
Stoop  thy  pale  visage  through  an  amber  cloud, 
And  disinherit  Chaos,  that  reigns  here 
In  double  night  of  darkness  and  of  shades  ; 
Or,  if  your  influence  be  quite  dammed  up 
With  black  usurping  mists,  some  gentle  taper, 
Though  a  rush  candle  from  the  wicker-hole 
Of  some  clay  habitation,  visit  us 

With  thy  long  levelled  rule  of  streaming  light,  340 

And  thou  shalt  be  our  star  of  Arcady, 
Or  Tyrian  Cynosure. 

SECOND  BROTHER.     Or,  if  our  eyes 
Be  barred  that  happiness,  might  we  but  hear 
The  folded  flocks,  penned  in  their  wattled  cotes, 
Or  sound  of  pastoral  reed  with  oaten  stops, 
Or  whistle  from  the  lodge,  or  village  cock 
Count  the  night-watches  to  his  feathery  dames, 
'T  would  be  some  solace  yet,  some  little  cheering, 
In  this  close  dungeon  of  innumerous  boughs. 
But,  oh,  that  hapless  virgin,  our  lost  sister !  350 


COMUS.  47 

Where  may  she  wander  now,  whither  betake  her 
From  the  chill  dew,  among  rude  burs  and  thistles  ? 
Perhaps  some  cold  bank  is  her  bolster  now, 
Or  'gainst  the  rugged  bark  of  some  broad  elm 
Leans  her  unpillowed  head,  fraught  with  sad  fears. 
What  if  in  wild  amazement,  and  affright, 
Or,  while  we  speak,  within  the  direful  grasp 
Of  savage  hunger,  or  of  savage  heat ! 

ELDER  BROTHER.    Peace,  brother ;  be  not  over-exquisite 
To  cast  the  fashion  of  uncertain  evils  ;  360 

For,  grant  they  be  so,  while  they  rest  unknown, 
What  need  a  man  forestall  his  date  of  grief, 
And  run  to  meet  what  he  would  most  avoid  ? 
Or,  if  they  be  but  false  alarms  of  fear, 
How  bitter  is  such  self-delusion ! 
I  do  not  think  my  sister  so  to  seek, 
Or  so  unprincipled  in  virtue's  book, 
And  the  sweet  peace  that  goodness  bosoms  ever, 
As  that  the  single  want  of  light  and  noise 
(Not  being  in  danger,  as  I  trust  she  is  not)  370 

Could  stir  the  constant  mood  of  her  calm  thoughts, 
And  put  them  into  misbecoming  plight. 
Virtue  could  see  to  do  what  Virtue  would 
By  her  own  radiant  light,  though  sun  and  moon 
Were  in  the  flat  sea  sunk.     And  Wisdom's  self 
Oft  seeks  to  sweet  retired  solitude, 
Where,  with  her  best  nurse,  Contemplation, 
She  plumes  her  feathers,  and  lets  grow  her  wings, 
That  in  the  various  bustle  of  resort, 
Were  all  to-ruffled,  and  sometimes  impaired.  380 


48  MILTON  LYRICS. 

I   He  that  has  light  within  his  own  clear  breast 
(    May  sit  i'  the  centre,  and  enjoy  bright  day : 
/  But  he  that  hides  a  dark  soul  and  foul  thoughts 
(^  Benighted  walks  under  the  midday  sun ; 

Himself  is  his  own  dungeon. 

SECOND  BROTHER.  'T  is  most  true 

That  musing  Meditation  most  affects 

The  pensive  secrecy  of  desert  cell, 

Far  from  the  cheerful  haunt  of  men  a^d  herds, 

And  sits  as  safe  as  in  a  senate-house ; 

For  who  would  rob  a  hermit  of  his  weeds,  390 

His  few  books,  or  his  beads,  or  maple  dish, 

Or  do  his  gray  hairs  any  violence? 

But  Beauty,  like  the  fair  Hesperian  tree 

Laden  with  blooming  gold,  had  need  the  guard 

Of  dragon  watch  with  un enchanted  eye 

To  save  her  blossoms,  and  defend  her  fruit, 

From  the  rash  hand  of  bold  Incontinence. 

You  may  as  well  spread  out  the  unsunned  heaps 

Of  miser's  treasure  by  an  outlaw's  den, 

And  tell  me  it  is  safe,  as  bid  me  hope  400 

Danger  will  wink  on  Opportunity, 

,And  let  a  single  helpless  maiden  pass 

Uninjured  in  this  wild  surrounding  waste.     . 

Of  night  or  loneliness  it  recks  me  not ; 

I  fear  the  dread  events  that  dog  them  both, 

Lest  some  ill-greeting  touch  attempt  the  person 

Of  our  unowned  sister. 

ELDER  BROTHER.  I  do  not,  brother, 

Infer  as  if  I  thought  my  sister's  state 


COMUS.  49 

Secure  without  all  doubt  or  controversy ; 

Yet,  where  an  equal  poise  of  hope  and  fear  410 

Does  arbitrate  the  event,  nay  nature  is 

That  I  incline  to  hope  rather  than  fear, 

And  gladly  banish  squint  suspicion. 

My  sister  is  not  so  defenceless  left, 

As  you  imagine  ;  she  has  a  hidden  strength, 

Which  you  remember  not. 

SECOND  BROTHER.  What  hidden  strength, 

Unless  the  strength  of  Heaven,  if  you  mean  that  ? 

ELDER  BROTHER.     I  mean  that  too,  but  yet  a  hidden 

[strength, 

Which,  if  Heaven  gave  it,  may  be  termed  her  own. 
;T  is  chastity,  my  brother,  chastity  :  420 

She  that  has  that  is  clad  in  complete  steel, 
And,  like  a  quivered  nymph  with  arrows  keen, 
May  trace  huge  forests,  and  unharboured  heaths, 
Infamous  hills,  and  sandy  perilous  wilds ; 
Where,  through  the  sacred  rays  of  chastity, 
No  savage  fierce,  bandite,  or  mountaineer, 
Will  dare  to  soil  her  virgin  purity. 
Yea,  there  where  very  desolation  dwells, 
By  grots  and  caverns  shagged  with  horrid  shades, 
She  may  pass  on  with  unblenched  majesty,  430 

Be  it  not  done  in  pride,  or  in  presumption. 
Some  say  no  evil  thing  that  walks  by  night, 
In  fog  or  fire,  by  lake  or  moorish  fen, 
Blue  meagre  hag,  or  stubborn  unlaid  ghost, 
That  breaks  his  magic  chains  at  curfew  time, 
No  goblin  or  swart  faery  of  the  mine, 


50  MILTON  LYRICS. 

Hath  hurtful  power  o'er  true  virginity. 

Do  ye  believe  me  yet,  or  shall  I  call 

Antiquity  from  the  old  schools  of  Greece 

To  testify  the  arms  of  chastity  ?  440 

Hence  had  the  huntress  Dian  her  dread  bow, 

Fair  silver-shafted  queen  for  ever  chaste, 

Wherewith  she  tamed  the  brinded  lioness 

And  spotted  mountain  pard,  but  set  at  nought 

The  frivolous  bolt  of  Cupid ;  gods  and  men 

Feared  her  stern  frown,  and  she  was  queen  o'  the  woods. 

What  was  that  snaky-headed  Gorgon  shield 

That  wise  Minerva  wore,  unconquered  virgin, 

Wherewith  she  freezed  her  foes  to  congealed  stone, 

But  rigid  looks  of  chaste  austerity,  450 

And  noble  grace  that  dashed  brute  violence 

With  sudden  adoration  and  blank  awe  ? 

So  dear  to  Heaven  is  saintly  chastity, 

That  when  a  soul  is  found  sincerely  so, 

A  thousand  liveried  angels  lackey  her, 

Driving  far  off  each  thing  of  sin  and  guilt, 

And  in  clear  dream,  and  solemn  vision 

Tell  her  of  things  that  no  gross  ear  can  hear ; 

Till  oft  converse  with  heavenly  habitants 

Begins  to  cast  a  beam  on  the  outward  shape,  450 

The  unpolluted  temple  of  the  mind, 

And  turns  it  by  degrees  to  the  soul's  essence, 

Till  all  be  made  immortal.     But,  when  lust, 

By  unchaste  looks,  loose  gestures,  and  foul  talk, 

But  most  by  lewd  and  lavish  act  of  sin, 

Lets  in  defilement  to  the  inward  parts, 


COMUS.  51 

The  soul  grows  clotted  by  contagion, 

Imbodies  and  imbrutes,  till  she  quite  lose 

The  divine  property  of  her  first  being. 

Such  are  those  thick  and  gloomy  shadows  damp  470 

Oft  seen  in  charnel  vaults  and  sepulchres, 

Lingering,  and  sitting  by  a  new-made  grave, 

As  loth  to  leave  the  body  that  it  loved, 

And  linked  itself  by  carnal  sensualty 

To  a  degenerate  and  degraded  state. 

SECOND  BROTHER.  How  charming  is  divine  philosophy ! 
Not  harsh  and  crabbed,  as  dull  fools  suppose, 
But  musical  as  is  Apollo's  lute, 
And  a  perpetual  feast  of  nectared  sweets, 
Where  no  crude  surfeit  reigns. 

ELDER  BROTHER.  List !  list !  I  hear      430 

Some  far-off  hallo  break  the  silent  air.  [be  ? 

SECOND  BROTHER.     Methought  so  too  ;  what  should  it 

ELDER  BROTHER.     For  certain, 
Either  some  one,  like  us,  night-foundered  here, 
Or  else  some  neighbour  woodman,  or,  at  worst, 
Some  roving  robber  calling  to  his  fellows,    [and  near ! 

SECOND  BROTHER.  Heaven  keep  my  sister.  Again,  again, 
Best  draw,  and  stand  upon  our  guard. 

ELDER  BROTHER.  I  '11  hallo, 

If  he  be  friendly,  he  comes  well :  if  not, 
Defence  is  a  good  cause,  and  Heaven  be  for  us ! 

The  Attendant  Spirit,  habited  like  a  shepherd. 

That  hallo  I  should  know.     What  are  you  ?  speak.      490 
Come  not  too  near ;  you  fall  on  iron  stakes  else. 


52  MILTON  LYRICS. 

SPIRIT.  '  What  voice  is  that  ?  my  young  Lord  ?  speak 

[again. 

SECOND  BROTHER.     0  brother,  >t  is  niy  father's  Shep- 

[herd,  sure. 

ELDER  BROTHER.     Thyrsis  !  whose  artful  strains  have 

[oft  delayed 

The  huddling  brook  to  hear  his  madrigal, 
And  sweetened  every  musk-rose  of  the  dale. 
How  earnest  thou  here,  good  swain  ?     Hath  any  ram 
Slipped  from  the  fold,  or  young  kid  lost  his  dam, 
Or  straggling  wether  the  pent  flock  forsook? 
How  couldst  thou  find  this  dark  sequestered  nook  ?     500 

SPIRIT.     0  my  loved  master's  heir,  and  his  next  joy, 
I  came  not  here  on  such  a  trivial  toy 
As  a  strayed  ewe,  or  to  pursue  the  stealth 
Of  pilfering  wolf ;  not  all  the  fleecy  wealth 
That  doth  enrich  these  downs  is  worth  a  thought 
To  this  my  errand,  and  the  care  it  brought. 
But,  oh !  my  virgin  Lady,  where  is  she  ? 
How  chance  she  is  not  in  your  company  ? 

ELDER  BROTHER.     To  tell  thee  sadly,  Shepherd,  with- 
Or  our  neglect,  we  lost  her  as  we  came,     [out  blame   510 

SPIRIT.     Ay  me  unhappy  !  then  my  fears  are  true. 

ELDER  BROTHER.     What  fears,  good  Thyrsis  ?  Prythee 

[briefly  shew. 

SPIRIT.     I'll  tell  ye.     ;T  is  not  vain  or  fabulous 
(Though  so  esteemed  by  shallow  ignorance) 
What  the  sage  poets,  taught  by  the  heavenly  Muse, 
Storied  of  old  in  high  immortal  verse 
Of  dire  Chimeras  and  enchanted  isles, 


COMUS.  53 

And  rifted  rocks  whose  entrance  leads  to  Hell ; 
For  such  there  be,  but  unbelief  is  blind. 

Within  the  navel  of  this  hideous  wood,  520 

Immured  in  cypress  shades,  a  sorcerer  dwells, 
Of  Bacchus  and  of  Circe  born,  great  Comus, 
Deep  skilled  in  all  his  mother's  witcheries, 
And  here  to  every  thirsty  wanderer 
By  sly  enticement  gives  his  baneful  cup, 
With  many  murmurs  mixed,  whose  pleasing  poison 
The  visage  quite  transforms  of  him  that  drinks, 
And  the  inglorious  likeness  of  a  beast 
Fixes  instead,  unmoulding  reason's  mintage 
Charactered  in  the  face.     This  I  have  learnt  530 

Tending  my  flocks  hard  by  i'  the  hilly  crofts 
That  brow  this  bottom  glade ;  whence  night  by  night 
He  and  his  monstrous  rout  are  heard  to  howl 
Like  stabled  wolves,  or  tigers  at  their  prey, 
Doing  abhorred  rites  to  Hecate 
In  their  obscured  haunts  of  inmost  bowers. 
Yet  have  they  many  baits,  and  guileful  spells 
To  inveigle  and  invite  the  unwary  sense 
Of  them  that  pass  unweeting  by  the  way. 
This  evening  late,  by  then  the  chewing  flocks  540 

Had  ta'en  their  supper  on  the  savoury  herb 
Of  knot-grass  dew-besprent,  and  were  in  fold, 
I  sat  me  down  to  watch  upon  a  bank 
With  ivy  canopied,  and  interwove 
With  flaunting  honeysuckle,  and  began, 
Wrapt  in  a  pleasing  fit  of  melancholy, 
To  meditate  my  rural  minstrelsy, 


54  MILTON  LYRICS. 

Till  fancy  had  her  fill.     But  ere  a  close 

The  wonted  roar  was  up  amidst  the  woods, 

And  filled  the  air  with  barbarous  dissonance  ;  550 

At  which  I  ceased,  and  listened  them  a  while, 

Till  an  unusual  stop  of  sudden  silence 

Gave  respite  to  the  drowsy -flighted  steeds 

That  draw  the  litter  of  close-curtained  Sleep. 

At  last  a  soft  and  solemn-breathing  sound 

Rose  like  a  steam  of  rich  distilled  perfumes, 

And  stole  upon  the  air,  that  even  Silence 

Was  took  ere  she  was  ware,  and  wished  she  might 

Deny  her  nature,  and  be  never  more, 

Still  to  be  so  displaced.     I  was  all  ear,  660 

And  took  in  strains  that  might  create  a  soul 

Under  the  ribs  of  Death.     But  oh  !  ere  long 

Too  well  I  did  perceive  it  was  the  voice 

Of  my  most  honoured  Lady,  your  dear  sister. 

Amazed  I  stood,  harrowed  with  grief  and  fear ; 

And  <  0  poor  hapless  nightingale,'  thought  I, 

6  How  sweet  thou  sing'st,  how  near  the  deadly  snare  ! ' 

Then  down  the  lawns  I  ran  with  headlong  haste, 

Through  paths  and  turnings  often  trod  by  day, 

Till,  guided  by  mine  ear,  I  found  the  place  570 

Where  that  damned  wizard,  hid  in  sly  disguise 

(For  so  by  certain  signs  I  knew),  had  met 

Already,  ere  my  best  speed  could  prevent, 

The  aidless  innocent  lady,  his  wished  prey ; 

Who  gently  asked  if  he  had  seen  such  two, 

Supposing  him  some  neighbour  villager. 

Longer  I  durst  not  stay,  but  soon  I  guessed 


COMUS.  55 

Ye  were  the  two  she  meant ;  with  that  I  sprung 
Into  swift  flight,  till  I  had  found  you  here ; 
But  further  know  I  not. 

SECOND  BROTHER.     0  night  and  shades,  580 

How  are  ye  joined  with  hell  in  triple  knot 
Against  the  unarmed  weakness  of  one  virgin, 
Alone  and  helpless  !     Is  this  the  confidence 
You  gave  me,  brother  ? 

ELDER  BROTHER.     Yes,  and  keep  it  still ; 
Lean  on  it  safely  ;  not  a  period 
Shall  be  unsaid  for  me.     Against  the  threats 
Qf  malice  or  of  sorcery,  or  that  power 
Which  erring  men  call  Chance,  this  I  hold  firm  : 
Virtue  may  be  assailed,  but  never  hurt, 
Surprised  by  unjust  force,  but  not  enthralled ;  590 

Yea,  even  that  which  Mischief  meant  most  harm 
Shall  in  the  happy  trial  prove  most  glory. 
But  evil  on  itself  shall  back  recoil, 
And  mix  no  more  with  goodness,  when  at  last, 
Gathered  like  scum,  and  settled  to  itself, 
It  shall  be  in  eternal  restless  change 
Self-fed  and  self-consumed.     If  this  fail, 
The  pillared  firmament  is  rottenness, 
And  earth's  base  built  on  stubble.     But  come,  let's  on ! 
Against  the  opposing  will  and  arm  of  Heaven  600 

May  never  this  just  sword  be  lifted  up; 
But,  for  that  damned  magician,  let  him  be  girt 
With  all  the  griesly  legions  that  troop 
Under  the  sooty  flag  of  Acheron, 
Harpies  and  Hydras,  or  all  the  monstrous  forms 


56  MILTON  LYRICS. 

'Twixt  Africa  and  Ind,  I'll  find  him  out, 
And  force  him  to  return  his  purchase  back, 
Or  drag  him  by  the  curls  to  a  foul  death, 
Cursed  as  his  life. 

SPIRIT.  Alas  !  good  venturous  youth, 

I  love  thy  courage  yet,  and  bold  emprise ;  610 

But  here  thy  sword  can  do  thee  little  stead. 
Far  other  arms  and  other  weapons  must 
Be  those  that  quell  the  might  of  hellish  charms. 
He  with  his  bare  wand  can  unthread  thy  joints, 
And  crumble  all  thy  sinews. 

ELDER  BROTHER.  Why,  prithee,  Shepherd, 

How  durst  thou  then  thyself  approach  so  near 
As  to  make  this  relation  ? 

SPIRIT.  Care  and  utmost  shifts 

How  to  secure  the  Lady  from  surprisal 
Brought  to  my  mind  a  certain  shepherd  lad, 
Of  small  regard  to  see  to,  yet  well  skilled  620 

In  every  virtuous  plant  and  healing  herb 
That  spreads  her  verdant  leaf  to  the  morning  ray. 
He  loved  me  well,  and  oft  would  beg  me  sing ; 
Which  when  I  did,  he  on  the  tender  grass 
Would  sit,  and  hearken  even  to  ecstasy, 
And  in  requital  ope  his  leathern  scrip, 
And  show  me  simples  of  a  thousand  names, 
Telling  their  strange  and  vigorous  faculties. 
Among  the  rest  a  small  unsightly  root, 
But  of  divine  effect,  he  culled  me  out.  630 

The  leaf  was  darkish,  and  had  prickles  on  it, 
But  in  another  country,  as  he  said, 


COMUS.  57 

Bore  a  bright  golden  flower,  but  not  in  this  soil : 

Unknown,  and  like  esteemed,  and  the  dull  swain 

Treads  on  it  daily  with  his  clouted  shoon ; 

And  yet  more  med'cinal  is  it  than  that  Moly 

That  Hermes  once  to  wise  Ulysses  gave. 

He  called  it  Hsernony,  and  gave  it  me, 

And  bade  me  keep  it  as  of  sovran  use 

'Gainst  all  enchantments,  mildew,  blast,  or  damp,        640 

Or  ghastly  Furies'  apparition. 

I  pursed  it  up,  but  little  reckoning  made, 

Till  now  that  this  extremity  compelled. 

But  now  I  find  it  true  ;  for  by  this  means 

I  knew  the  foul  enchanter,  though  disguised, 

Entered  the  very  lime-twigs  of  his  spells, 

And  yet  came  off.     If  you  have  this  about  you 

(As  I  will  give  you  when  we  go)  you  may 

Boldly  assault  the  necromancer's  hall ; 

Where  if  he  be,  with  dauntless  hardihood  650 

And  brandished  blade  rush  on  him ;  break  his  glass, 

And  shed  the  luscious  liquor  on  the  ground; 

But  seize  his  wand.     Though  he  and  his  curst  crew 

Fierce  sign  of  battle  make,  and  menace  high, 

Or,  like  the  sons  of  Vulcan,  vomit  smoke, 

Yet  will  they  soon  retire,  if  he  but  shrink. 

ELDER  BROTHER.     Thyrsis,  lead  on  apace ;  I'll  follow 
And  some  good  angel  bear  a  shield  before  us.         [thee ; 


58  MILTON  LYRICS. 


The  Scene  changes  to  a  stately  Palace,  set  out  with  all 
manner  of  deliciousness :  soft  music,  tables  spread  with 
all  dainties.  Comus  appears  with  his  rabble,  and  THE 
LADY  set  in  an  enchanted  chair :  to  whom  he  offers  his 
glass  ;  which  she  puts  by,  and  goes  about  to  rise. 

COMUS.     Nay,  Lady,  sit.     If  I  but  wave  this  wand, 
Your  nerves  are  all  chained  up  in  alabaster,  660 

And  you  a  statue,  or  as  Daphne  was, 
Boot-bound,  that  fled  Apollo. 

LADY.  Fool,  do  not  boast. 

Thou  canst  not  touch  the  freedom  of  my  mind 
With  all  thy  charms,  although  this  corporal  rind 
Thou  hast  immanacled,  while  Heaven  sees  good. 

COMUS.    Why  are  you  vexed,  Lady  ?  why  do  you  frown  ? 
Here  dwell  no  frowns,  nor  anger ;  from  these  gates 
Sorrow  flies  far.     See,  here  be  all  the  pleasures 
That  fancy  can  beget  on  youthful  thoughts, 
When  the  fresh  blood  grows  lively,  and  returns  670 

Brisk  as  the*  April  buds  in  primrose  season. 
And  first  behold  this  cordial  julep  here, 
That  flames  and  dances  in  his  crystal  bounds, 
With  spirits  of  balm,  and  fragrant  syrups  mixed. 
Not  that  Nepenthes  which  the  wife  of  Thone 
In  Egypt  gave  to  Jove-born  Helena 
Is  of  such  power  to  stir  up  joy  as  this, 
To  life  so  friendly,  or  so  cool  to  thirst. 
Why  should  you  be  so  cruel  to  yourself, 
And  to  those  dainty  limbs,  which  Nature  lent  680 


COMUS.  59 

For  gentle  usage  and  soft  delicacy  ? 

But  you  invert  the  covenants  of  her  trust, 

And  harshly  deal,  like  an  ill  borrower, 

With  that  which  you  received  on  other  terms, 

Scorning  the  unexempt  condition 

By  which  all  mortal  frailty  must  subsist, 

Refreshment  after  toil,  ease  after  pain, 

That  have  been  tired  all  day  without  repast, 

And  timely  rest  have  wanted.     But,  fair  virgin, 

This  will  restore  all  soon. 

LADY.  ?T  will  not,  false  traitor !    690 

'T  will  not  restore  the  truth  and  honesty 
That  thou  hast  banished  from  thy  tongue  with  lies. 
Was  this  the  cottage  and  the  safe  abode 
Thou  told'st  me  of  ?    What  grim  aspects  are  these, 
These  oughly-headed  monsters  ?     Mercy  guard  me  ! 
Hence  with  thy  brewed  enchantments,  foul  deceiver ! 
Hast  thou  betrayed  my  credulous  innocence 
With  vizored  falsehood  and  base  forgery  ? 
And  wouldst  thou  seek  again  to  trap  me  here 
With  liquorish  baits,  fit  to  ensnare  a  brute  ?  700 

Were  it  a  draught  for  Juno  when  she  banquets, 
I  would  not  taste  thy  treasonous  offer.     None 
But  such  as  are  good  men  can  give  good  things ; 
And  that  which  is  not  good  is  not  delicious 
To  a  well-governed  and  wise  appetite. 

COMUS.     O  foolishness  of  men !  that  lend  their  ears 
To  those  budge  doctors  of  the  Stoic  fur, 
And  fetch  their  precepts  from  the  Cynic  tub, 
Praising  the  lean  and  sallow  Abstinence ! 


60  MILTON  LYRICS. 

Wherefore  did  Nature  pour  her  bounties  forth  710 

With  such  a  full  and  un withdrawing  hand, 

Covering  the  earth  with  odours,  fruits,  and  flocks, 

Thronging  the  seas  with  spawn  innumerable, 

But  all  to  please  and  sate  the  curious  taste  ? 

And  set  to  work  millions  of  spinning  worms, 

That  in  their  green  shops  weave  the  smooth-haired  silk, 

To  deck  her  sons  ;  and,  that  no  corner  might 

Be  vacant  of  her  plenty,  in  her  own  loins 

She  hutched  the  all-worshipped  ore  and  precious  gems, 

To  store  her  children  with.     If  all  the  world  720 

Should,  in  a  pet  of  temperance,  feed  on  pulse, 

Drink  the  clear  stream,  and  nothing  wear  but  frieze, 

The  All-giver  would  be  unthanked,  would  be  u upraised, 

Not  half  his  riches  known,  and  yet  despised; 

And  we  should  serve  him  as  a  grudging  master, 

As  a  penurious  niggard  of  his  wealth, 

And  live  like  Nature's  bastards,  not  her  sons, 

Who  would  be  quite  surcharged  with  her  own  weight, 

And  strangled  with  her  waste  fertility  : 

The  earth  cumbered,  and  the  winged  air  darked  with 

The  herds  would  over-multitude  their  lords  ;  [plumes,  730 

The  sea  o'erfraught  would  swell,  and  the  unsought  dia- 

Would  so  emblaze  the  forehead  of  the  deep,      [monds 

And  so  bestud  with  stars,  that  they  below 

Would  grow  inured  to  light,  and  come  at  last 

To  .gaze  upon  the  sun  with  shameless  brows. 

List,  Lady  ;  be  not  coy,  and  be  not  cozened 

With  that  same  vaunted  name,  Virginity. 

Beauty  is  Nature's  coin  ;  must  not  be  hoarded, 


COMUS.  61 

But  must  be  current ;  and  the  good  thereof  740 

Consists  in  mutual  and  partaken  bliss, 

Unsavoury  in  the  enjoyment  of  itself. 

If  you  let  slip  time,  like  a  neglected  rose 

It  withers  on  the  stalk  with  languished  head. 

Beauty  is  Nature's  brag,  and  must  be  shown 

In  courts,  at  feasts,  and  high  solemnities, 

Where  most  may  wonder  at  the  workmanship. 

It  is  for  homely  features  to  keep  home ; 

They  had  their  name  thence  :  coarse  complexions, 

And  cheeks  of  sorry  grain  will  serve  to  ply  750 

The  sampler,  and  to  tease  the  huswife's  wool. 

What  need  a  vermeil-tinctured  lip  for  that, 

Love-darting  eyes,  or  tresses  like  the  morn  ? 

There  was  another  meaning  in  these  gifts ; 

Think  what,  and  be  advised ;  you  are  but  young  yet. 

LADY.     I  had  not  thought  to  have  unlocked  my  lips 
In  this  unhallowed  air,  but  that  this  juggler 
Would  think  to  charm  my  judgment,  as  mine  eyes, 
Obtruding  false  rules  pranked  in  reason's  garb. 
I  hate  when  vic^can  bolt  her  arguments  760 

And  virtue  has  no  tongue  to  check  her  pride. 
Impostor !  do  not  charge  most  innocent  Nature, 
As  if  she  would  her  children  should  be  riotous 
With  her  abundance.     She,  good  cateress, 
Means  her  provision  only  to  the  good, 
That  live  according  to  her  sober  laws, 
And  holy  dictate  of  spare  Temperance. 
If  every  just  man  that  now  pines  with  want 
Had  but  a  moderate  and  beseeming  share 


62  MILTON  LYRICS. 

Of  that  which  lewdly-pampered  Luxury  770 

Now  heaps  upon  some  few  with  vast  excess, 

Nature's  full  blessings  would  be  well-dispensed 

In  unsuperfluous  even  proportion, 

And  she  no  whit  encumbered  with  her  store  ; 

And  then  the  Giver  would  be  better  thanked, 

His  praise  due  paid  :  for  swinish  gluttony 

Ne'er  looks  to  Heaven  amidst  his  gorgeous  feast, 

But  with  besotted  base  ingratitude 

Crams,  and  blasphemes  his  Feeder.     Shall  I  go  on  ? 

Or  have  I  said  enow  ?     To  him  that  dares  730 

Arm  his  profane  tongue  with  contemptuous  words 

Against  the  sun-clad  power  of  chastity 

Fain  would  I  something  say ;  —  yet  to  what  end  ? 

Thou  hast  nor  ear,  nor  soul,  to  apprehend 

The  sublime  notion  and  high  mystery 

That  must  be  uttered  to  unfold  the  sage 

And  serious  doctrine  of  Virginity, 

And  thou  art  worthy  that  thou  shouldst  not  know 

More  happiness  than  this  thy  present  lot. 

Enjoy  your  dear  wit,  and  gay  rhetoric,  790 

That  hath  so  well  been  taught  her  dazzling  fence ; 

Thou  art  not  fit  to  hear  thyself  convinced. 

Yet,  should  I  try,  the  uncontrolled  worth 

Of  this  pure  cause  would  kindle  my  rapt  spirits 

To  such  a  flame  of  sacred  vehemence 

That  dumb  things  would  be  moved  to  sympathize, 

And  the  brute  Earth  would  lend  her  nerves,  and  shake, 

Till  all  thy  magic  structures,  reared  so  high, 

Were  shattered  into  heaps  o'er  thy  false  head. 


COMUS.  63 

COMUS.     She'fables  not.     I  feel  that  I  do  fear         goo 
Her  words  set  off  by  some  superior  power ; 
And,  though  not  mortal,  yet  a  cold  shudderin^lew 
Dips  me  all  o'er,  as  when  the  wrath  of  Jove 
Speaks  thunder  and  the  chains  of  Erebus 
To  some  of  Saturn's  crew.     I  must  dissemble, 
And  try  her  yet  more  strongly.  —  Come,  no  more  ! 
This  is  mere  moral  babble,  and  direct 
Against  the  canon  laws  of  our  foundation. 
I  must  not  suffer  this  ;  yet 't  is  but  the  lees 
And  settlings  of  a  melancholy  blood.  810 

But  this  will  cure  all  straight ;  one  sip  of  this 
Will  bathe  the  drooping  spirits  in  delight 
Beyond  the  bliss  of  dreams.     Be  wise,  and  taste.  .  .  . 

The  BROTHERS  rush  in  with  sivords  drawn,  wrest  his  glass 
out  of  his  hand,  and  break  it  against  the  ground :  his 
rout  make  sign  of  resistance,  but  are  all  driven  in. 
The  ATTENDANT  SPIRIT  comes  in. 

SPIRIT.    What !  have  you  let  the  false  enchanter  scape  ? 
0  ye  mistook ;  ye  should  have  snatched  his  wand, 
And  bound  him  fast.     Without  his  rod  reversed, 
And  backward  mutters  of  dissevering  power. 
We  cannot  free  the  Lady  that  sits  here 
In  stony  fetters  fixed  and  motionless. 
Yet  stay :  be  not  disturbed ;  now  I  bethink  me,  820 

Some  other  means  I  have  which  may  be  used, 
Which  once  of  Melibceus  old  I  learnt, 
The  soothest  shepherd  that  e'er  piped  on  plains. 


64  MILTON  LYRICS. 

There  is  a  gentle  Nymph  not  far  from  hence, 
That  with  moist  curb  sways  the  smooth  Severn  stream : 
Sabrina  is  her  name :  a  virgin  pure ; 
Whilom  she  was  the  daughter  of  Locrine, 
That  had  the  sceptre  from  his  father  Brute. 
She,  guiltless  damsel,  flying  the  mad  pursuit 
Of  her  enraged  stepdame,  Guendolen,  830 

Commended  her  fair  innocence  to  the  flood 
That  stayed  her  flight  with  his  cross-flowing  course. 
The  water-nymphs  that  in  the  bottom  played, 
Held  up  their  pearled  wrists,  and  took  her  in, 
Bearing  her  straight  to  aged  Kerens'  hall ; 
Who,  piteous  of  her  woes,  reared  her  lank  head, 
And  gave  her  to  his  daughters  to  imbathe 
In  nectared  lavers  strowed  with  asphodil, 
And  through  the  porch  and  inlet  of  each  sense 
Dropped  in  ambrosial  oils,  till  she  revived,  840 

And  underwent  a  quick  immortal  change, 
Made  Goddess  of  the  river.     Still  she  retains 
Her  maiden  gentleness,  and  oft  at  eve 
Visits  the  herds  along  the  twilight  meadows, 
Helping  all  urchin  blasts,  and  ill-luck  signs 
That  the  shrewd  meddling  elf  delights  to  make, 
Which  she  with  precious  vialed  liquors  heals : 
For  which  the  shepherds,  at  their  festivals, 
Carol  her  goodness  loud  in  rustic  lays, 
And  throw  sweet  garland  wreaths  into  her  stream        850 
Of  pansies,  pinks,  and  gaudy  daffodils. 
And,  as  the  old  swain  said,  she  can  unlock 
The  clasping  charm,  and  thaw  the  numbing  spell 


COMUS.  65 

If  she  be  right  invoked  in  warbled  song ; 
For  maidenhood  she  loves,  and  will  be  swift 
To  aid  a  virgin,  such  as  was  herself, 
In  hard-besetting  need.     This  will  I  try, 
And  add  the  power  of  some  adjuring  verse. 

SONG. 

Sabrina  fair, 

Listen  where  thou  art  sitting  g6Q 

Under  the  glassy,  cool,  translucent  wave, 

In  twisted  braids  of  lilies  knitting 
The  loose  train  of  thy  amber-dropping  hair ; 

Listen  for  dear  honour's  sake, 

Goddess  of  the  silver  lake. 

Listen  and  save ! 
Listen  and  appear  to  us> 
In  name  of  great  Oceanus, 
By  the  earth-shaking  Neptune's  mace, 
And  Tethys'  grave  majestic  pace ;  870 

By  hoary  Nereus'  wrinkled  look, 
And  the  Carpathian  wizard's  hook ; 
By  scaly  Triton's  winding  shell, 
And  old  soothsaying  Glaucus'  spell, 
By  Leucothea's  lovely  hands, 
And  her  son  that  rules  the  strands  ; 
By  Thetis'  tinsel-slippered  feet, 
And  the  songs  of  Sirens  sweet ; 
By  dead  Parthenope's  dear  tomb, 
And  fair  Ligea's  golden  comb,  880 


66  MILTON  LYRICS. 

Wherewith  she  sits  on  diamond  rocks 
Sleeking  her  soft  alluring  locks  ; 
By  all  the  nymphs  that  nightly  dance 
Upon  thy  streams  with  wily  glance  : 
Rise,  rise,  and  heave  thy  rosy  head 
From  thy  coral-paven  bed, 
And  bridle  in  thy  headlong  wave, 
Till  thou  our  summons  answered  have. 

Listen  and  save ! 

SABRINA  rises,  attended  by  Water-Nymphs,  and  sings. 

By  the  rushy -fringed  bank,  890 

Where  grows  the  willow  and  the  osier  dank, 

My  sliding  chariot  stays, 
Thick  set  with  agate,  and  the  azurn  sheen 
Of  turkis  blue,  and  emerald  green, 

That  in  the  channel  strays ; 
Whilst  from  off  the  waters  fleet 
Thus  I  set  my  printless  feet 
O'er  the  cowslip's  velvet  head, 

That  bends  not  as  I  tread. 

Gentle  swain,  at  thy  request  900 

I  am  here ! 

SPIRIT.     Goddess  dear, 
We  implore  thy  powerful  hand 
To  undo  the  charmed  band 
Of  true  virgin  here  distressed 
Through  the  force,  and  through  the  wile 
Of  unblessed  enchanter  vile. 


COMUS.  67 

SABRINA.     Shepherd,  't  is  my  office  best 
To  help  ensnared  chastity. 

Brightest  Lady,  look  on  me.  910 

Thus  I  sprinkle  on  thy  breast 
Drops  that  from  my  fountain  pure 
I  have  kept  of  precious  cure ; 
Thrice  upon  thy  finger's  tip, 
Thrice  upon  thy  rubied  lip : 
Next  this  marble  venoined  seat, 
Smeared  with  gums  of  glutinous  heat, 
I  touch  with  chaste  palms  moist  and  cold. 
Now  the  spell  hath  lost  his  hold ; 
And  I  must  haste  ere  morning  hour  920 

To  wait  in  Amphitrite's  bower. 

SABRINA  descends,  and  tJie  LADY  rises  out  of  her  seat. 

SPIRIT.     Virgin,  daughter  of  Locriue, 
Sprung  of  old  Anchises'  line, 
May  thy  brimmed  waves  for  this 
Their  full  tribute  never  miss 
From  a  thousand  petty  rills, 
That  tumble  down  the  snowy  hills  : 
Summer  drouth  or  singed  air 
Never  scorch  thy  tresses  fair, 

Nor  wet  October's  torrent  flood  930 

Thy  molten  crystal  fill  with  mud ; 
May  thy  billows  roll  ashore 
The  beryl  and  the  golden  ore ; 
May  thy  lofty  head  be  crowned 


G8  MILTON  LYRICS. 

With  many  a  tower  and  terrace  round, 
And  here  and  there  thy  banks  upon 
With  groves  of  myrrh  and  cinnamon. 

Come,  Lady ;  while  Heaven  lends  us  grace, 
Let  us  fly  this  cursed  place, 

Lest  the  sorcerer  us  entice  940 

With  some  other  new  device. 
Not  a  waste  or  needless  sound 
Till  we  come  to  holier  ground. 
I  shall  be  your  faithful  guide 
Through  this  gloomy  covert  wide ; 
And  not  many  furlongs  thence 
Is  your  Father's  residence, 
Where  this  night  are  met  in  state 
Many  a  friend  to  gratulate 

His  wished  presence,  and  beside  950 

All  the  swains  that  there  abide, 
With  jigs  and  rural  dance  resort. 
We  shall  catch  them  at  their  sport, 
And  our  sudden  coming  there 
Will  double  all  their  mirth  and  cheer. 
Come,  let  us  haste ;  the  stars  grow  high, 
But  Night  sits  monarch  yet  in  the  mid  sky. 


COMUS.  69 


The  scene  changes,  presenting  Ludlow  town  and  the 
President's  Castle:  then  come  in  Country  Dancers, 
after  them  the  ATTENDANT  SPIRIT,  with  two  BROTHERS, 
and  the  LADY. 


SONG. 

SPIRIT.  Back,  shepherds,  back  !  Enough  your  play, 
Till  next  sun-shine  holiday. 

Here  be,  without  duck  or  nod,  960 

Other  trippings  to  be  trod 
Of  lighter  toes,  and  such  court  guise 
As  Mercury  did  first  devise, 
With  the  mincing  Dryades 
On  the  lawns  and  on  the  leas. 


This  second  Song  presents  them  to  their  Father  and  Mother. 

Noble  Lord  and  Lady  bright, 

I  have  brought  ye  new  delight. 

Here  behold  so  goodly  grown 

Three  fair  branches  of  your  own. 

Heaven  hath  timely  tried  their  youth,  970 

Their  faith,  their  patience,  and  their  truth, 

And  sent  them  here  through  hard  assays 

With  a  crown  of  deathless  praise, 

To  triumph  in  victorious  dance 

O'er  sensual  folly,  and  intemperance. 


70  MILTON  LYRICS. 


The  dances  ended,  the  Spirit  epiloguizes. 

SPIRIT.     To  the  ocean  now  I  fly, 
And  those  happy  climes  that  lie 
Where  day  never  shuts  his  eye, 
Up  in  the  broad  fields  of  the  sky. 
There  I  suck  the  liquid  air,  980 

All  amidst  the  gardens  fair 
Of  Hesperus,  and  his  daughters  three 
That  sing  about  the  golden  tree. 
Along  the  crisped  shades  and  bowers 
Revels  the  spruce  and  jocund  Spring ; 
The  Graces  and  the  rosy-bosomed  Hours 
Thither  all  their  bounties  bring. 
There  eternal  Summer  dwells, 
And  west-winds  with  musky  wing 
About  the  cedarn  alleys  fling  990 

Nard  and  cassia's  balmy  smells. 
Iris  there  with  humid  bow 
Waters  the  odorous  banks,  that  blow 
Flowers  of  more  mingled  hue 
Than  her  purfled  scarf  can  shew, 
And  drenches  with  Elysian  dew 
(List,  mortals,  if  your  ears  be  true) 
Beds  of  hyacinth  and  roses, 
Where  young  Adonis  oft  reposes, 
Waxing  well  of  his  deep  wound,  1000 

In  slumber  soft,  and  on  the  ground 


COMUS.  71 

Sadly  sits  the  Assyrian  queen. 

J3ut  far  above  in  spangled  sheen, 

Celestial  Cupid,  her  famed  son,  advanced, 

Holds  his  dear  Psyche,  sweet  entranced 

After  her  wandering  labors  long, 

Till  free  consent  the  gods  among 

Make  her  his  eternal  bride, 

And  from  her  fair  unspotted  side 

Two  blissful  twins  are  to  be  born,  1010 

Youth  and  Joy ;  so  Jove  hath  sworn. 

But  now  my  task  is  smoothly  done : 
I  can  fly,  or  I  can  run 
Quickly  to  the  green  earth's  end, 
Where  the  bowed  welkin  slow  doth  bend, 
And  from  thence  can  soar  as  soon 
To  the  corners  of  the  moon. 

Mortals,  that  would  follow  me, 
Love  Virtue  ;  she  alone  is  free. 
She  can  teach  ye  how  to  climb  1020 

Higher  than  the  sphery  chime ; 
Or,  if  Virtue  feeble  were, 
Heaven  itself  would  stoop  to  her. 


LYCIDAS. 


IN  this  Monody  the  author  bewails  a  learned  friend,  unfortunately 
drowned  in  his  passage  from  Chester  on  the  Irish  seas,  1G37;  and,  hy 
occasion,  foretells  the  ruin  of  our  corrupted  Clergy,  then  in  their 
t  height. 

YET  once  more,  0  ye  laurels,  and  once  more, 

Ye  myrtles  brown,  with  ivy  never  sere, 

I  come  to  pluck  your  berries  harsh  and  crude, 

And  with  forced  fingers  rude 

Shatter  your  leaves  before  the  mellowing  year. 

Bitter  constraint,  and  sad  occasion  dear 

Compels  me  to  disturb  your  season  due ; 

For  Lycidas  is  dead,  dead  ere  his  prime, 

Young  Lycidas,  and  hath  not  left  his  peer : 

Who  would  not  sing  for  Lycidas  ?  he  knew  10 

Himself  to  sing,  and  build  the  lofty  rhyme. 

He  must  not  float  upon  his  watery  bier 

Unwept,  and  welter  to  the  parching  wind, 

Without  the  meed  of  some  melodious  tear. 

Begin  then,  Sisters  of  the  sacred  well 
That  from  beneath  the  seat  of  Jove  doth  spring ; 
Begin,  and  somewhat  loudly  sweep  the  string. 

72 


LYCIDAS.  73 

Hence  with  denial  vain  and  coy  excuse  : 

So  may  some  gentle  Muse 

With  lucky  words  favour  my  destined  urn,  20 

And  as  he  passes  turn, 

And  bid  fair  peace  be  to  my  sable  shroud ! 

For  we  were  nursed  upon  the  self-same  hill, 
Fed  the  same  flock,  by  fountain,  shade,  and  rill. 
Together  both,  ere  the  high  lawns  appeared 
Under  the  opening  eyelids  of  the  Morn, 
We  drove  a-field,  and  both  together  heard 
What  time  the  grey-fly  winds  her  sultry  horn, 
Battening  our  flocks  with  the  fresh  dews  of  night, 
Oft  till  the  star  that  rose  at  evening  bright  30 

Toward  heaven's  descent  had  sloped  his  westering  wheel. 
Meanwhile  the  rural  ditties  were  not  mute ; 
Tempered  to  the  oaten  flute 

Eough  Satyrs  danced,  and  Fauns  with  cloven  heel 
From  the  glad  sound  would  not  be  absent  long ; 
And  old  Danioetas  loved  to  hear  our  song. 

But,  oh !  the  heavy  change,  now  thou  art  gone, 
Now  thou  art  gone  and  never  must  return ! 
Thee,  Shepherd,  thee  the  woods,  and  desert  caves 
With  wild  thyme  and  the  gadding  vine  overgrown,        40 
And  all  their  echoes,  mourn. 
The  willows,  and  the  hazel  copses  green, 
Shall  now  no  more  be  seen 
Fanning  their  joyous  leaves  to  thy  soft  lays. 
As  killing  as  the  canker  to  the  rose, 
Or  taint-worm  to  the  weanling  herds  that  graze, 
Or  frost  to  flowers,  that  their  gay  wardrobe  wear, 


74  MILTON  LYRICS. 

When  first  ;the  white-thorn  blows ; 
Such,  Lycidas,  thy  loss  to  shepherds'  ear. 

Where  were  ye,  Nymphs,  when  the  remorseless  deep    50 
Closed  o'er  the  head  of  your  loved  Lycidas  ? 
For  neither  were  ye  playing  on  the  steep 
Where  your  old  bards,  the  famous  Druids,  lie, 
Nor  on  the  shaggy  top  of  Mona  high, 
Nor  yet  where  Deva  spreads  her  wizard  stream. 
Ay  me  !  I  fondly  dream 

"  Had  ye  been  there,"  .  .  .  for  what  could  that  have  done  ? 
What  could  the  Muse  herself  that  Orpheus  bore, 
The  Muse  herself,  for  her  enchanting  son, 
Whom  universal  nature  did  lament,  60 

When  by  the  rout  that  made  the  hideous  roar, 
His  gory  visage  down  the  stream  was  sent, 
Down  the  swift  Hebrus  to  the  Lesbian  shore  ? 

Alas  !  what  boots  it  with  incessant  care 
To  tend  the  homely,  slighted,  shepherd's  trade, 
And  strictly  meditate  the  thankless  Muse  ? 
Were  it  not  better  done  as  others  use, 
To  sport  with  Amaryllis  in  the  shade, 
Or  with  the  tangles  of  Nesera's  hair  ? 
Fame  is  the  spur  that  the  clear  spirit  doth  raise  70 

n?hat  last  infirmity  of  noble  mind) 
To  scorn  delights  and  live  laborious  days ; 
But  the  fair  guerdon  when  we  hope  to  find, 
And  think  to  burst  out  into  sudden  blaze, 
Comes  the  blind  Fury  with  the  abhorred  shears, 
And  slits  the  thin-spun  life.     "  But  not  the  praise," 
Phoebus  replied,  and  touched  my  trembling  ears : 


LYCIDAS.  75 

"  Fame  is  no  plant  that  grows  on  mortal  soil, 

Nor  in  the  glistering  foil 

Set  off  to  the  world,  nor  in  broad  rumour  lies,  80 

But  lives  and  spreads  aloft  by  those  pure  eyes 

And  perfect  witness  of  all-judging  Jove  ; 

As  he  pronounces  lastly  on  each  deed, 

Of  so  much  fame  in  heaven  expect  thy  meed." 

0  fountain  Arethuse,  and  thou  honoured  flood, 
Smooth-sliding  Mincius,  crowned  with  vocal  reeds, 
That  strain  I  heard  was  of  a  higher  mood. 
But  now  my  oat  proceeds, 
And  listens  to  the  Herald  of  the  Sea 
That  came  in  Neptune's  plea ;  90 

He  asked  the  waves,  and  asked  the  felon  winds, 
What  hard  mishap  hath  doomed  this  gentle  swain  ? 
And  questioned  every  gust  of  rugged  wings 
That  blows  from  off  each  beaked  promontory. 
They  knew  not  of  his  story ; 
And  sage  Hippotades  their  answer  brings, 
That  not  a  blast  was  from  his  dungeon  strayed : 
The  air  was  calm,  and  on  the  level  brine 
Sleek  Panope  with  all  her  sisters  played. 
It  was  that  fatal  and  perfidious  bark,  NX) 

Built  in  the  eclipse,  and  rigged  with  curses  dark, 
That  sunk  so  low  that  sacred  head  of  thine. 

Next,  Camus,  reverend  sire,  went  footing  slow, 
His  mantle  hairy,  and  his  bonnet  sedge, 
Inwrought  with  figures  dim,  and  on  the  edge 
Like  to  that  sanguine  flower  inscribed  with  woe. 
"  Ah  !  who  hath  reft/7  quoth  he,  "  my  dearest  pledge  ?  " 


76  MILTON  LYRICS. 

Last  came,  and  last  did  go, 

The  Pilot  of  the  Galilean  lake ; 

Two  massy  keys  he  bore  of  metals  twain  no 

(The  golden  opes,  the  iron  shuts  amain). 

He  shook  his  mitred  locks,  and  stern  bespake  :  — 

"  How  well  could  I  have  spared  for  thee,  young  swain, 

Enow  of  such  as,  for  their  bellies'  sake, 

Creep,  and  intrude,  and  climb  into  the  fold  ! 

Of  other  care  they  little  reckoning  make 

Than  how  to  scramble  at  the  shearers'  feast, 

And  shove  away  the  worthy  bidden  guest. 

Blind  mouths  !  that  scarce  themselves  know  how  to  hold 

A  sheep-hook,  or  have  learned  aught  else  the  least       120 

That  to  the  faithful  herdsman's  art  belongs ! 

What  recks  it  them  ?    What  need  they  ?    They  are  sped ; 

And  when  they  list,  their  lean  and  flashy  songs 

Grate  on  their  scrannel  pipes  of  wretched  straw ; 

The  hungry  sheep  look  up,  and  are  not  fed, 

But,  swoln  with  wind,  and  the  rank  mist  they  draw, 

Rot  inwardly,  and  foul  contagion  spread ; 

Besides  what  the  grim  wolf  with  privy  paw 

Daily  devours  apace,  and  nothing  said. 

But  that  two-handed  engine  at  the  door  130 

Stands  ready  to  smite  once,  and  smite  no  more." 

Return,  Alpheus  ;  the  dread  voice  is  past 
That  shrunk  thy  streams  ;  return,  Sicilian  Muse, 
And  call  the  vales,  and  bid  them  hither  cast 
Their  bells  and  flowerets  of  a  thousand  hues. 
Ye  valleys  low,  where  the  mild  whispers  use 
Of  shades,  and  wanton  winds,  and  gushing  brooks, 


LYCIDAS.  77 

On  whose  fresh  lap  the  swart-star  sparely  looks, 

Throw  hither  all  your  quaint  enamelled  eyes, 

That  on  the  green  turf  suck  the  honied  showers,          140 

And  purple  all  the  ground  with  vernal  flowers. 

Bring  the  rathe  primrose  that  forsaken  dies, 

The  tufted  crow-toe,  and  pale  jessamine, 

The  white  pink,  and  the  pansy  freaked  with  jet, 

The  glowing  violet, 

The  musk-rose,  and  the  well-attired  woodbine, 

With  cowslips  wan  that  hang  the  pensive  head, 

And  every  flower  that  sad  embroidery  wears ; 

Bid  amaranthus  all  his  beauty  shed, 

And  daffadillies  fill  their  cups  with  tears,  150 

To  strew  the  laureate  hearse  where  Lycid  lies. 

For  so  to  interpose  a  little  ease, 

Let  our  frail  thoughts  dally  with  false  surmise, 

Ay  me !  Whilst  thee  the  shores  and  sounding  seas 

Wash  far  away,  where'er  thy  bones  are -hurled; 

Whether  beyond  the  stormy  Hebrides, 

Where  thou  perhaps  under  the  whelming  tide 

Visit'st  the  bottom  of  the  monstrous  world ; 

Or  whether  thou,  to  our  moist  vows  denied, 

Sleep'st  by  the  fable  of  Bellerus  old,  160 

Where  the  great  Vision  of  the  guarded  mount 

Looks  toward  Namancos  and  Bayona's  hold : 

Look  homeward,  Angel,  now,  and  melt  with  ruth : 

And,  O  ye  dolphins,  waft  the  hapless  youth. 

Weep  no  more,  woful  shepherds,  weep  no  more, 
For  Lycidas,  your  sorrow,  is  not  dead, 
Sunk  though  he  be  beneath  the  watery  floor. 


78  MILTON  LYRICS. 

So  sinks  the  day-star  in  the  ocean  bed, 

And  yet  anon  repairs  his  drooping  head, 

And  tricks  his  beams,  and  with  new-spangled  ore         170 

Flames  in  the  forehead  of  the  morning  sky : 

So  Lycidas  sunk  low,  but  mounted  high, 

Through  the  dear  might  of  Him  that  walked  the  waves, 

Where,  other  groves  and  other  streams  along, 

With  nectar  pure  his  oozy  locks  he  laves, 

And  hears  the  unexpressive  nuptial  song, 

In  the  blest  kingdoms  meek  of  joy  and  love. 

There  entertain  him  all  the  Saints  above, 

In  solemn  troops,  and  sweet  societies, 

That  sing,  and  singing  in  their  glory  move,  180 

And  wipe  the  tears  for  ever  from  his  eyes. 

Now,  Lycidas,  the  shepherds  weep  no  more ; 

Henceforth  thou  art  the  Genius  of  the  shore, 

In  thy  large  recompense,  and  shalt  be  good 

To.  all  that  wander  in  that  perilous  flood. 

us  sang  the  uncouth  swain  to  the  oaks  and  rills, 
While  the  still  morn  went  out  with  sandals  grey : 
He  touched  the  tender  stops  of  various  quills, 
With  eager  thought  warbling  his  Doric  lay : 
And  now  the  sun  had  stretched  out  all  the  hills,          190 
And  now  was  dropped  into  the  western  bay. 
At  last  he  rose,  and  twitched  his  mantle  blue  : 
To-morrow  to  fresh  woods,  and  pastures  new. 


NOTES  ON  L' ALLEGRO. 


LINE  2.  Cerberns.  The  dog  that  guarded  the  entrance  to  Hades 
and  Night  is  a  poetic  fancy,  to  give  Melancholy  a  sufficiently  uncanny 
parentage.  In  the  same  way  Spenser  makes  Corceca  the  mother  of 
Abessa,  i.e.  Blind  Devotion  parent  to  Ignorance.  See  Faery  Queene, 
Book  I.,  canto  iii. 

3.    In  Stygian  Cave.    The  kennel  of  Cerberus. 

6.  Jealous  wings.  A  particularly  good  adjective,  bringing  to  the 
mind  the  super-solicitude  of  anything  that  broods. 

9.  Ragged.    If  Milton  intended  this  word,  it  is  the  only  time  that 
he  uses  it,  while  he  uses  "  rugged  "  six  times.    Cf.  Isa.  ii.  21. 

10.  Cimmerian.    The  mythical  Cimmerii  dwelt  in  the  farthest 
west,  in  a  land  of  mists  and  darkness;  the  less  legendary  tradition 
localizes  them  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Black  Sea. 

10-24.  Again  Milton  prefers  to  create  his  own  mythology,  and  in- 
stead of  making  the  three  Graces,  Euphrosyne,  Aglaia,  and  Thalia, 
children  of  Zeus  and  Hera,  gives  one  a  choice  of  two  new  pedigrees 
that  spring  from  his  own  poetic  fancy. 

11.  Fair  and  free.    A  favorite  phrase  used  by  Chaucer,  Drayton, 
Tennyson,  and  others. 

17.    Sager.    i.e.,  wiser  ones. 

20.     A-Maying.     Old  form  of  "  on  Maying."     Cf.  St.  John  xxi.  3. 

24.  Buxom,  blithe,  and  debonair.  Note  alliteration  and  word 
origins. 

26-28.  Here  is  offered  an  excellent  lesson  in  definition  with  fine 
distinctions.  See  Dictionary. 

29.  Hebe,  The  goddess  of  youth,  and  cup-bearer  to  the  gods  till 
succeeded  by  Ganymede.  Cf.  Comus  1.  290. 

41-80.  To  hear  the  lark  .  .  .  cynosure  of  neighbouring  eyes. 
A  dawn  song,  with  few  peers,  and  only  one  superior  in  Koineo  and 
Juliet,  Act  iii.,  Scene  5. 

79 


80  MILTON  LYRICS. 

60-61.  Where  the  great  sun  begins  his  state,  etc.  Cf .,  Shake- 
speare's Sonnet  XXXITI. 

67.  Every  shepherd  tells  his  tale.  The  better  scholars  inter- 
pret this  line  "  counts  his  sheep,"  not,  at  so  early  a  period  in  the  day, 
interchanges  stories  with  his  rustic  neighbours.  Cf.  Exod.  v.  18. 

69.  Straight  mine  eye  hath  caught  new  pleasures.  A  quick 
transition  from  a  contemplation  of  the  foreground  to  the  more  inspir- 
ing breadth  of  the  background  of  the  picture. 

75.  Meadows  trim  with  daisies  pied.  Cf.  "  When  daisies  pied 
and  violets  blue."  Shakespeare's  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  Act  v., 
Scene  2. 

80.  Cynosure.  "  Cynosura,  dog's  tail,"  the  constellation  of  the 
Lesser  Bear,  by  which  the  Phoenician  mariners  directed  their  course. 
In  Racket's  Life  of  Williams,  the  Countess  of  Buckingham  is  called 
"the  Cynosura  that  all  the  Papists  steered  by." 

81-86.  As  the  poem  proceeds,  so  has  the  beautiful  day,  and  we  are 
now  at  high  noontide ;  at  last,  in  the  ninety-ninth  line,  the  "  livelong 
daylight "  fails. 

83.  Where  Corydon  and  Thyrsis  met  .  .  .  Phillis  .  .  .  Thes- 
tylis.  These  names  in  pastoral  poetry  date  back  to  classical  litera- 
ture, as  in  Virgil's  Eclogues,  where  Corydon  is  a  lovesick  swain. 

91-92.  The  scene  changes  in  time  to  afternoon ;  in  place,  to  the 
village. 

94.  Rebecks.  A  three-stringed  musical  instrument  somewhat 
like  the  violin.  Shakespeare,  as  ingeniously  as  Dickens,  calls  the  fid- 
dler at  Juliet's  wedding  Hugh  Rebeck.  Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  iv., 
Scene  5. 

"  He  tuned  his  rebec  to  a  mournful  note."  —  Drayton. 
96.    Chequered  shade. 

"  The  green  leaves  quiver  with  the  cooling  wind, 
And  make  a  chequered  shadow  on  the  ground." 

Titus  Andronicus,  ii.,  3. 

98.  On  a  sunshine  holiday.  Milton  loves  this  phrase,  for  it  is 
repeated  in  Comus,  1.  95.  Shakespeare  also  used  sunshine  for  sun- 
shiny. Richard  II.,  iv.,  1. 

100.  A  third  transition,  by  which  we  are  introduced  to  rustic  even- 
ing occupations. 

102.    How  Faery  Mab  the  junkets  eat.     Queen  Mab  has  had 


NOTES   ON  L'ALLEGRG.  81 

many  portrayals  in  literature,  but  all  are  distanced  by  the  exquisite 
picture  in  Shakespeare's  Borneo  and  Juliet,  Act  i.,  Scene  4.  1.  54-99. 
For  other  descriptions  see  "  This  is  Mab,  the  mistress  fair,"  in  Ben 
Jonson's  The  Satyr,Herrick  in  The  Hesperides,  Drayton  in  his  Nim- 
phidia,  "Walter  Scott  in  The  Antiquary.  According  to  Shakespeare, 
she  is  the  Faery's  midwife,  employed  to  deliver  men's  brains  of  dreams. 
"  Junkets,"  cream-cheese,  a  word  of  interesting  derivation. 

103-104.  Here  follows  what  in  to-day's  parlance  would  be  "  he 
said"  and  "  shs  said,"  by  a  third  person  who  is  telling  the  story. 

104.  And  he  by  Friar's  lantern  led.  Milton  uses  the  expression 
as  a  synonym  of  Jack  o'  lantern ;  but  in  Demonology  it  is  Friar  Rush 
who  is  the  house  spirit  called  by  the  Scotch,  Brownie  and  the  North 
English,  Lob-lie-by-the-Fire.  Robin  Goodfellow,  the  Friar  of  the 
Lantern,  Will  o'  the  Wisp  or  Puck,  is  an  outdoor  spirit.  Scott,  in 
Marmion,  follows  Milton,  however,  and  says, — 

"  Better  we  had  through  mire  and  bush 
Been  lanthern-led  by  Friar  Rush." 

Marmion. 

106.  Tells  how  the  drudging  goblin  sweat.  Another  of  the 
fraternity,  sometimes  called  Hobgoblin,  and  at  his  best  Puck  of  Shake- 
speare. He  seems  to  have  been  a  gay  companion  to  Queen  Mab,  who 
does  for  men  in  the  way  of  assistance  or  hindrance  what  Mab  does 
for  women.  "I  am  the  honest,  plain  country  spirit  and  harmless 
Robin  Goodfellow  "  (Lover  Restored :  Ben  Jonson).  No  better  illus- 
tration could  be  given  of  the  nth  power  to  which  Shakespeare  raises 
his  characters  than  to  compare  other  Robin  Goodfellows  of  the  Eliza- 
bethan age  with  his  tricksy  Puck  to  whom  all  mortals  are  fools. 

117.  Towered  cities  please  us  then.  Again  a  transition  indi- 
cated as  before  by  "  then,"  the  youth  of  "  pale  intellectual  cast,*'  after 
his  day  given  to  pastoral  delights,  instead  of  following  the  rustics  to 
be  lulled  to  sleep  by  "  whispering  winds,"  lingers  to  read  his  favorite 
authors.  He  gives  himself  up  to  the  delight  of  old  days,  of  knights 
and  tourneys,  of  wedding  festivals,  and  after,  to  the  drama  of  Ben 
Jonson  or  Shakespeare  so  near  his  own  time  that  it  is  as  if  we  read 
to-day  in  the  same  spirit,  Tennyson  and  Browning  after  a  day  of 
outdoor  pleasure  among  rustic  people.  Ben  Jonson  was  made 
Poet  Laureate  in  1619. 

120.    Weeds  of  peace.    The  common  poetic  term  for  clothing  used 


82  MILTON  LYRICS. 

often  in  Elizabethan  writers.  Viola  dislikes  to  appear  before  she  has 
doffed  her  "  woman's  weeds."  Twelfth  Night,  iv.,  1. 

122.  Rain  influence.  A  figure  from  astrology,  used  also  in  the 
Ode  on  the  Nativity. 

125-126.  There  let  Hymen  .  .  .  taper  clear.  Hymen,  in  classi- 
cal literature,  is  a  sort  of  overgrown  Cupid,  bearing  a  torch  and  veil. 
His  colors  are  yellow,  as  are  the  marriage  colors  to-day  in  some  coun- 
tries. The  scenery  suggested  is  that  common  to  the  Masque  so 
popular  in  Shakespeare's  time.  See  Bacon's  Essay  Of  Masques  and 
Triumphs. 

131.  Another  transition  announced  by  the  reiterated  "  then  "  when 
the  reading  that  has  been  romance  now  turns  to  the  drama. 

132.  If  Jonson's  learned  sock  be  on.    The  sock  indicated  tho 
comedy;  the  buskin,  tragedy. 

133-134.  Or  sweetest  Shakespeare,  etc.  Though  this  passage 
is  often  quoted  to  prove  Milton's  appreciation  of  Shakespeare,  a  much 
more  adequate  conception  of  the  poet  is  found  in  Milton's  On 
Shakespeare,  written  in  1630  and  prefacing  the  Second  Folio 
Shakespeare. 

135-136.  And  ever  .  .  .  soft  Lydian  airs.  The  softest  and  sweet- 
est music  was  to  accompany  or  succeed  this  aesthetic  evening.  Lydian 
music  was  voluptuous  as  contrasted  with  Phrygian  or  Dorian. 

139.  Bout,  bend,  or  turn.  Spenser,  in  using  the  word,  spells  it 
"  bought,"  as  from  bow. 

145-150.  That  Orpheus'  self  may  ....  half  regained  Eury- 
dice.  Orpheus,  grieving  for  the  loss  of  his  wife  Eurydice,  went  to 
Hades  to  recover  her.  His  music  charmed  consent  from  Pluto  for 
her  return  to  earth,  qualified  by  the  condition  that  he  should  look  not 
back  till  he  had  gained  upper  air.  The  test  was  too  severe,  and  look- 
ing back  to  see  if  she  followed,  he  only  saw  her  slowly  receding  from 
him. 

11  O  Proserpina, 

For  the  flowers  now,  that  frighted  thou  let'st  fall 
From  Dis's  wagon !  daffodils, 
That  come  before  the  swallow  dares,  and  take 
The  winds  of  March  with  beauty;  violets  dim, 
But  sweeter  than  the  lids  of  Juno's  eyes 
Or  Cytherea's  breath." 

Winter's  Tale,  iv.,  3. 
151.    Cf.  Eccles.  viii.,  15. 


NOTES  ON  IL  PENSEROSO. 


LINES.    Bested.     To  stand  by.    "I  never  saw  a  fellow  worse 
bested."    2  Henry  VI.,  ii.,  3. 
6.    Gaudy.    From  the  Old  English  "  gaud." 
8.    As  the  gay  motes,  etc.    This  line  is  a  memory  of  Chaucer's  — 

"  As  thick  as  motes  in  the  sonne  beams." 

10.  Pensioners.  Retinue;  Queen  Elizabeth  had  such  a  guard 
whom  she  called  her  pensioners.  Shakespeare  also  uses  the  word  in 
Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  ii.,  1. 

"  The  cowslips  tall,  her  pensioners  be." 

18.  Prince  Memnou's  sister.  Prince  Memnon  was  the  beauti- 
ful Ethiopian  son  of  Tithonus  and  Eos,  who  came  to  the  aid  of  Priam, 
towards  the  close  of  the  Trojan  War,  and  was  slain  by  Achilles.  See 
Odyssey,  Book  XI.  Dewdrops  in  Greek  poetry  are  called  "  Aurora's 
tears  for  Memnon." 

19-21.  Or  that  starred  Ethiop  queen  .  .  .  offended.  Cassi- 
ope,  queen  of  the  Ethiopians,  who  was  so  audacious  as  to  compare 
her  beauty  to  that  of  the  Nereids,  and  was  a  sacrifice  to  her  ambition. 
She  was  transferred  to  the  skies  and  became  the  constellation  known 
as  Cassiopeia,  which  in  old  maps  was  represented  as  a  black  woman 
studded  with  stars,  according  to  Milton's  adjective.  Milton's  version 
makes  Cassiope  the  victim  of  Neptune's  wrath  ;  but  in  classical  his- 
tory, Andromeda,  her  daughter,  pays  the  penalty  of  boasted  beauty. 

23-30.  Thee,  bright-haired  Vesta  ...  no  fear  of  Jove.  This 
genealogy  is,  as  in  the  parentage  of  Mirth,  an  inventon  of  Milton. 
Saturn,  the  god  from  whom  we  make  our  adjective  "  Saturnine," 

83 


84  MILTON  LYRICS. 

wedded  to  the  virgin  Vesta  of  the  hearthstone,  makes  no  unfitting 
origin  for  solitary  thought. 

.  Mr.  Wartoii  thinks  Milton's  inmost  idea  was  that  Melancholy  is  the 
daughter  of  Solitude  and  Genius.  The  "  pensive  nun  "  of  the  next 
line  gives  some  light  on  this  rendering. 

25.  His  daughter  she,    i.e.,  she  was  his  daughter. 

26.  Woody  Ida,    On  Mt.  Ida,  in  the  island  of  Crete,  was  the 
temple  to  Cybele  surrounded  by  groves. 

33.    Grain.    From  a  small  seed  this  came  to  mean  a  colour  or  dye. 

35.  Sable  stole  of  cypress  lawn.  Black  lawn  scarf,  probably 
from  the  Isle  of  Cyprus,  as  Shakespeare  has  also  in  the  wares  peddled 
by  Autolycus,  — 

"  Lawn  as  white  as  driven  snow, 
Cyprus  black  as  e'er  was  crow." 

Winter's  Tale,  iv.,  4. 

39.  Commerc'ing.  Note  the  accent  on  the  second  syllable:  it  is 
used  in  this  sense  by  Shakespeare. 

42.  Forget  thyself  to  marble.  This  phrase  recurs  in  Mil- 
ton's On  Shakespeare.  He  is  fond  of  repeating  favourite  phrases, 
as  has  been  already  noted.  Cf .  the  phrase,  "  I  was  petrified  with 
fright." 

51-54.  But  first  and  chiefest  .  •  «  Contemplation,  See  Ezo- 
kiel,  chapter  x.  Milton  presumes  to  name  one  of  the  Ezekelian 
cherubs,  and  calls  him  by  a  name  of  his  own. 

55-56.  And  the  mute  silence  ,  .  ,  a  song,  i.e.,  Keep  up  the 
mute  silence  unless  there  be  an  interruption  by  Philomel,  the  night- 
ingale. This  is  an  unusual  use  of  "  hist "  as  a  verb.  Cf. 

"After  jangling  words  cometh  huiste,  peace  and  be  stille." 

Chaucer. 

59.  While  Cynthia  checks  her  dragon  yoke.  The  fascinated 
Moon  is  supposed  to  stop  her  chariot  drawn  of  dragons  to  listen ;  but 
in  old  Mythology  it  was  the  chariot  of  Demeter  that  was  drawn  of 
dragons. 

"  Night's  swift  dragons  cut  the  clouds  full  fast." 

Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  Hi.,  2. 

61-64.  Milton  delights  in  the  nightingale,  as  is  seen  not  only 
in  this  familiar  passage,  but  in  the  Sonnet  to  the  Nightingale, 
Comus,  pp.  566-567,  and  by  several  allusions  in  Paradise  Lost. 


NOTES  ON  IL  PENSEROSO.  85 

67.  Wandering  Moon.  The  moon  with  all  poets  is  ever  a 
vagrant,  unheld  of  fixed  laws.  Both  Horace  and  Virgil  use  the  same 
expression. 

"  Wandering  companionless 
Among  the  stars  that  bear  a  different  birth." 

Shelley. 

74.  Curfew.     The  curfew  ringing,  which  was  the  signal  for  the 
putting  out  of  hearthstone  fires  since  the  days  of  William  the  Con- 
queror, was  still  held  in  practice  in  Milton's  time,  and  yet  survives 
in  a  few  rural  parts  of  England. 

75.  The  Impossibility  of  locating  the  scene  of  this  passage  at  Hor- 
ton,  Oxford,  or  Windsor  is  good  proof  of  its  existence  only  in  Poet 
Land. 

83.  Bellman's  drowsy  charm.  This  is  a  reference  to  a  pleasing 
custom  retained  still  in  some  German  towns,  where  watchmen  an- 
nounce, at  the  striking  of  the  hour,  the  condition  of  the  weather  and 
the  peace  of  the  environments.  Shakespeare  also  has  "  sullen  bell." 
See  Herrick's  charming  poem  of  The  Bellman. 

87.  Where  I  may  outwatch  the  bear.    Implying  that  in  this 
mood  he  would  keep  his  vigil  till  morning,  since  the  bear  would  fade 
out,  not  set  in  his  sky. 

Plato.  The  Athenian  philosopher  and  the  most  distinguished 
pupil  of  Socrates,  429  (?)  -347  B.C. 

88.  With  thrice-great  Hermes.    The  Egyptian  king  called  by 
the  Greeks,  Hermes  Trismegistus,  or  thrice-great. 

89-92-96.  This  passage  entire  is  in  evident  reference  to  the  discus- 
sion of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  as  found  in  the  Phaedo  and  Ti- 
maeus,  though  the  demons  of  the  flood,  fire,  air,  etc.,  belong  to  the 
later  students  of  Plato. 

93.  And  of  those  demons.  An  interesting  ellipsis  called 
zeugma  by  rhetoricians. 

97.  Sometime  let  gorgeous  tragedy,  etc.  As  Comedy  suited 
the  mood  of  L'Allegro,  now  Tragedy  suits  this  serious  strain. 

99-100.  Presenting  Thebes  .  .  .  Troy  divine,  i.e.,  whose  sto- 
ries have  formed  subjects  for  the  great  Greek  dramatists  ^Eschylus 
( Seven  against  Thebes )  Sophocles  ( Antigone  or  Ocedipus)  Euripides, 
(Bacchae). 

101-102.  Or  what  .  .  .  buskined  stage.  Here  would  have  been 
an  excellent  occasion  for  Milton  to  still  further  show  his  literary 


86  MILTON  LYRICS. 

discernment  in  honouring  Shakespeare  hy  making  him  fit  compan- 
ion of  the  Greek  dramatists.  Many  think  it  was  indicated  sufficiently 
to  signify  none  other,  though  the  fear  of  Ben  Jonson  before  his  eyes 
might  have  prevented  the  young  poet,  who  was  so  soon  to  fear  nothing 
in  life  or  death,  from  a  frank  acknowledgment  of  this  preference. 

103-120.  Here  is  a  true  lament  for  lost  literature  to  which  might 
be  added  many  lost  treasures  in  English  poetry. 

110.  The  story  of  Cambuscan  bold.  Chaucer's  Squire's  Tale 
that  was  left  unfinished.  Cambuscan  was  the  father  of  Canace,  to 
whom  the  King  of  Araby  and  Ind  sent  the  magic  ring  and  mirror. 
The  ring  told  the  language  of  every  bird  that  sang,  and  the  glass  all 
that  was  happening  in  the  world.  They  were  brought  by  a  knight  — 

"  Upon  a  steed  of  brass, 
And  in  his  hand  a  broad  mirror  of  glass ; 
Upon  his  thumb  he  had  of  gold  a  ring." 

Chaucer. 

116-119.  These  lines  might  allude  to  much  literature  of  a  romantic 
type,  doubtless  familiar  to  Milton,  as  Ariosto,  Tasso,  Spenser. 

122.  Civil-suited  morn.  Dressed  in  civilian's  suit,  not  in  her 
gayest  apparel  as  in  L' Allegro. 

124.  The  Attic  Boy.  Cephalus,  the  son  of  Diomede  and  Deion, 
who  was  loved  of  Aurora,  the  Dawn. 

128.  His  fill.  "  Its,"  as  we  use  it  to-day,  was  studiously  avoided 
by  Milton,  who  uses  "  its  "  but  three  times  in  all  his  poems. 

130.    Minute-drops,    i.e.,  falling  at  frequent  steady  intervals. 

134.  Sylvan  loves.  Subjects  of  the  god  Sylvanus.  See  Spenser's 
Faery  Queene.  Book  I.,  Canto  6. 

147-150.  And  let  some  strange  ....  on  my  eyelids  laid. 
This  is  a  rather  obscure  passage,  as  if  dreams  had  already  taken  pos- 
session of  the  poet  sleeper.  Without  the  changes  substituted  by  com- 
mentators, the  rendering  seems  to  be  that  dreams  should  flow  off  the 
wings  of  sleep  as  in  a  stream  on  the  dreamer. 

151.  And  as  I  wake.  Milton  seems  not  satisfied  with  the  trans- 
positions afforded  by  the  "  thens  "  of  L'Allegro,  and  allowing  for  a 
clearer  understanding  on  the  part  of  his  readers,  makes  no  attempt  to 
indicate  the  changes  of  locality.  He  now  enters  first  the  student- 
cloister  that  is  quickly  changed  for  the  more  imposing  and  impressive 
cathedral.  For  the  first  time  II  Penseroso  is  in  contact  with  his 
fellow  men,  but  not  as  in  L'Allegro  in  their  secular  life,  in  which 


NOTES  ON  IL  PENSEROSO.  87 

he  .might  not  really  have  part,  but  in  an  act  of  worship  before  God, 
where  all  come  in  one  common  attitude  and  spirit. 

158.  Massy  proof,    i.e.,  proof  against  the  weight  they  support. 

159.  Storied  windows  richly  (light.    Windows  whose  subjects 
were  stories  from  the  Bible  or  ecclesiastical  history. 

167-176.  Scott,  in  the  Introduction  to  Canto  II.  of  Marmion,  recalls 
this  passage,  in  the  lines 

'.'  Here  have  I  thought  'twere  sweet  to  dwell, 
And  rear  again  the  chaplain's  cell, 
Like  that  same  peaceful  hermitage 
Where  Milton  longed  to  spend  his  age." 

Almost  as  peaceful  and  retired  an  old  age  as  he  coveted  in  his  youth 
was  granted  Milton ;  but  vexed  with  the  memory  of  a  cause  lost,  it  is 
doubtful  if  it  yielded  all  the  proposed  tranquillity. 

170-174.  A  memory  perchance  of  Friar  Laurence  in  Shakespeare's 
Borneo  and  Juliet. 

Note :  L' Allegro  does  not  provide  for  old  age ;  it  is  too  happy  to 
be  fore-seeing. 


NOTES  ON  COMUS. 


The  first  scene  discovers  a  wild  wood.  The  Attendant  Spirit  de- 
scends or  enters. 

LINE  3.  Insphered.  Milton,  like  every  poet,  has  his  favourite 
words.  Insphered  is  one,  as  we  have  seen  in  both  L' Allegro  and 
II  Penseroso. 

7.  Confined  and  pestered  in  this  pinfold  here.  "  Pestered," 
Masson  thinks  from  pestis,  a  plague ;  Todd,  pesta,  a  crowd ;  but  why 
not  from  the  French,  empetrer,  to  entangle?  "  Pinfold,"  a  sheep  en- 
closure, from  Anglo-Saxon  pyndan ;  our  word,  "  pound,"  is  from  the 
same  source. 

9-11.  Unmindful  of  the  crown  ...  on  sainted  seats. 
Amongst  the  enthroned  gods.  Kev.  iv.,  4, 11. 

13.  That  Golden  Key.  Art  and  the  Church  have  traditionally 
given  to  St.  Peter  two  keys,  a  golden  one  to  open,  an  iron  to  shut,  the 
gates  of  Heaven.  See  Lycidas,  110-111. 

16.  Ambrosial  weeds.  Ambrosial  is  used  here  in  its  true  sig- 
nification of  immortal  "  weeds."  See  L' Allegro,  120. 

20.  Took  in  by  lot  'twixt  high  and  nether  Jove.  See  Book 
XV.  Homer's  Iliad.  Also  Paradise  Lost,  II.,  295.  Other  authors 
have  named  Pluto,  Nether  Jove.  A  rather  ambiguous  reading  is 
here,  but  the  natural  interpretation  is  the  best. 

26.    Several,    Separate.    Cf.  the  verb  "to  sever." 

27-28.  This  Isle  ,  ,  ,  all  the  Main.  Milton  had  not  reached  his 
period  of  patriotism.  Cf.  with  this  meek  expression  the  passages  in 
King  John,  Act.  v.,  Sc.  7,  lines  116-117,  or  Richard  II.,  ii.,  1. 

29.  He  quarters  to  his  blue-haired  deities,  i.e.,  divides  among. 
"  Blue-haired  "  tasks  my  comprehension,  as  Neptune's  petty  gods 
were  green-haired. 


NOTES  ON  COM  US.  89 

30.    All  this  tract.    Wales  in  its  entirety. 

31-33.  A  noble  peer  .  .  .  proud  in  arms.  This  reference,  like 
the  famous  Shakesperian  passage  which  is  supposed  to  compliment 
Elizabeth,  is  a  deferential  passage  in  compliment  of  the  Earl  of 
Bridgewater,  Viceroy  of  Wales,  among  the  onlookers  at  this  festival 
given  at  his  cost. 

40.  Tender  age.  Lady  Alice  was  about  fourteen,  her  brother 
still  younger. 

46-50.  The  classical  character  of  Milton's  learning  at  so  early  a 
period  is  amply  illustrated  in  his  first  attempts  in  verse.  In  these 
four  and  a  half  lines  is  compacted  the  story  of  Circe  (see  Classical 
Dictionary),  a  passage  from  the  Odyssey,  BookX.,  the  Homeric  Hymn 
to  Bacchus,  and  one  of  Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  II.,  660. 

NOTE.    The  genealogy  that  follows  is  an  invention  of  Milton. 

50.  Who  knows  not  Circe.  A  good  example  of  the  rhetorical 
figure  so  frequently  used  by  Macaulay. 

54-58.  This  nymph,  etc.  This  genealogy  is  of  a  type  in  which 
Milton  delighted.  Observe,  Bacchus  and  Circe  would  be  a  sufficiently 
pronounced  heredity  for  the  character  of  Comus,  the  villain  of  his 

drama. 

"  Much  of  the  father's  face, 
More  of  the  mother's  grace." 

60.  The  Celtic  and  Iberian  fields.    Gaul  and  Spain. 

61.  This  ominous  wood.    The  adjacent  wood  was  that  of  Shrop- 
shire, near  the  place  of  this  performance. 

66.    Phoebus.    The  sun. 

68-72.  To  change  the  faces  gave  a  fine  spectacular  opportunity,  for 
as  Comus  came  on  the  stage  he  would  be  followed  by  a  noisy  crew 
who  needed  but  to  have  the  heads  of  the  various  animals  represented 
as  masks. 

73-77.  Note  the  difference  in  results,  compared  with  the  rendering 
of  Circe's  power  by  Homer,  Odyssey,  Book  IX.  Cf.,  Spenser's  Faery 
Queene,  II.,  xii.,  86-87. 

84-88.  And  take  the  weeds  .  .  .  the  waving  woods.  Henry 
Lawes,  the  composer  of  the  music,  who  was  in  the  audience,  thus  has 
an  Elizabethan  compliment  elegantly  turned. 

93.  The  star  that  bids  the  shepherd  fold.  Hesperus,  or 
Venus.  Note  the  change  in  metre. 

.       "  Look,  the  unfolding  star  calls  up  the  shepherd."—  Shakespeare. 


90  MILTON  LYRICS. 

105.    Rosy  twine.    Twined  roses. 

115.  Sounds  and  seas,    i.e.,  shallow  straits  and  seas. 

116.  Now  to  the  moon  .  .  .  morrice  move.    A  dance  imported 
from  Spain. 

129.  Dark- veiled  Cotytto.  The  Thracian  goddess  of  immodesty, 
worshipped  with  nocturnal  rites  at  Athens  in  ancient  times. 

135.  Hecat.  A  triple  deity  much  obscured  in  mythological  shades. 
She  is  Phoebe  in  Heaven,  Diana  on  earth,  and  Proserpina  or  Hecate 
in  hell.  Shakespeare  includes  all  three  in 

"  By  the  triple  Hecate's  team," 

but  these  are  the  darker  uses,  as  in  Macbeth. 

138-142.  Ere  the  blabbing  .  .  .  concealed  solemnity.  An  old 
fable  that  the  Sun  discloses  the  mysteries  or  secrets  of  the  night. 

Nice.     Fastidious. 

143.  Cf.  Ariel's  Song  in  The  Tempest,  Act  i.,  2. 

144.  Light,  fantastic.    See  L' Allegro,  lines  33-34. 
146.    Chaste  footing.    Cf .  Lycidas,  103. 

151.    Trains.    Allurements. 

153-154.  Thus  I  hurl  .  .  .  spongy  air.  Here  undoubtedly  an 
effect  was  produced  on  the  stage  by  the  burning  of  some  chemical 
powder. 

Comus  suffers  greatly  from  comparison  with  Puck  and  his  antics  in 
Midsummer  Night's  Dream. 

167.  Whom  thrift  keeps  up  about  his  country  gear.  This 
line  is  not  found  in  the  edition  of  1673.  "  Gear,"  business. 

178.  Swilled  Insolence.    Drunken  insolence. 

179.  Wassailers.      Wassail,    from  the  Anglo-Saxon  wses  hael, 
"  your  health!  "  used  by  the  English  anciently  in  drinking  a  health. 

188-190.  They  left  me  .  .  .  Phoebus'  wain.  The  beauty  of 
this  figure,  representing  a  sad  palmer  slowly  following  the  chariot  of 
the  day,  is  apparent. 

195.    Stole.    Reading  of  first  and  second  editions. 

205-209.  A  thousand  fantasies  .  .  .  wildernesses.  Compare 
Shakespeare's  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  v.,sc.  1, 1.  14-17 ;  The  Tem- 
pest, Act  iii.,  sc.  3. 

212.    Con-sci-ence.    A  trisyllable  here. 

213-225.  Here  is  one  of  the  best  stage  effects,  as  well  as  immortal 
passages  of  the  poem.  The  introduction  of  the  song  that  follows  in 


NOTES  ON  COM  US.  91 

order  to  attract  attention  is  not  original,  as  one  well  recalls  by  refer- 
ence to  Ben  Jonson's  Cynthia's  Revels,  I.,  1. 

For  the  story  of  Echo  and  Narcissus,  see  Classical  Dictionary. 

253.  My  mother  Circe  with  the  sirens  three.  Circe  sang,  and 
Circe  gathered  herbs,  and  Circe  had  an  attendant  retinue ;  but  this 
neighborly  conjunction  is  Milton  s  own  device.  See  Odyssey,  Books 
X.  and  XI. 

257-259.  Scylla  wept  .  .  .  soft  applause.  Glaucus,  a  fisherman, 
loved  Scylla.  Circe,  in  jealousy,  changed  her  to  a  monster,  when 
Scylla  threw  herself  in  the  sea  and  became  a  rock.  Barking  waves, 
Virgil's  uEneid,  VII.,  588,  "  multis  circum  latrantibus  undis." 

259.  Charybdis.  A  whirlpool  on  the  coast  of  Sicily ;  mythologi- 
cally  a  daughter  of  Poseidon  hurled  to  the  depths  by  the  anger  of 
Jove.  There  are  other  legends  of  her  in  classical  lore.  "  Between 
Scylla  and  Charybdis  "  is  a  phrase  well  understood  by  those  who  do 
not  know  its  origin. 

265.  Hail,  foreign  wonder!  This  exclamation  in  a  vile  mouth 
is  not  unlike  the  pure  expression  of  Ferdinand  when  he>  first  looked 
on  Miranda.  See  The  Tempest,  i.f  2. 

267.  Unless  the  goddess.    Note  the  ellipsis. 

268.  Pan  or  Sylvan.    "  Pan,"  an  Arcadian  god  of  the  shepherds; 
"  Sylvan,"  the  god  of  field  and  forest. 

271.    Ill  Is  lost.    A  Latin  idiom,  male  perditur. 

277-290.  A  thoroughly  classical  form,  such  as  is  found  again  and 
again  in  Greek  tragedies.  Cf.  The  Maidens  of  Trachis  at  entrance  of 
Lichas ;  also  Creon  and  Oedipus  in  Oedipus  at  Colonos. 

291.  What  time.  This  idiom  for  when  is  ever  a  favourite  of  the 
poets. 

"  What  time  I  am  afraid  I  will  trust  in  thee." 
"  What  time  the  shepherd  blowing  of  his  nails." 
'*  What  time  the  grey -fly  winds  her  sullen  horn." 

293.    Swinked.    Tired  with  labour. 

297-304.  Their  port  was  more  than  human.  A  thinly  dis- 
guised compliment  to  the  sons,  Lord  Brackley  and  Thomas  Egerton, 
who  were  now  to  come  on  the  stage.  The  lines  of  Comus's  address  to 
the  lady  veil  like  praises  of  Alice  Egerton. 

The  words  of  this  speech  are  rather  flowery  and  elegant  for  Comus 
in  his  guise  as  a  shepherd. 


92  MILTON  LYRICS. 

301.     Plighted.    Plaited  or  folded. 

317-318.  Or  the  low-roosted  lark  .  .  .  rouse.  This  phrase 
might  have  awakened  inquiry  as  to  Milton's  knowledge  of  bird 
habits.  Certainly  it  demands  a  figurative  interpretation  rather  than 
the  literal  one  suggested  by  Mr.  Masson. 

324^327.  Here  is  possibly  a  beginning  of  the  spirit  of  republicanism 
that  characterized  the  life  of  Milton. 

329.    Sqnare  my  trial.    Adapt  my  trial. 

341-342.    See  notes  on  L' Allegro,  180. 

344.    Wattled  cotes.    Pens  made  of  braided  twigs. 

349.    Inmimerous.    Also  in  Paradise  Lost,  VII.,  455. 

359.    Over  exquisite.     Over  curious. 

373.  Virtue  could  see  .  .  .  radiant  light.  Cf.  Spenser's  Faery 
Queene,  I.,  L,  12.  "Virtue  gives  herself  light  thro'  darkness  for  to 
wade." 

378.    Plumes.    Many  commentators  think  better  "  prunes." 

380.  All  to-ruffled.  All  too  much  ruffled.  The  hyphen  is  the 
work  of  editors. 

381-382.  No  one  more  than  Milton,  both  literally  and  figuratively, 
had  to  experience  the  truth  of  his  own  youthful  sentiments. 

382.    May  sit  i*  the  centre.    Centre  of  all  things. 

391.  Maple  dish.  Sometimes  other  woods  are  named  by  the 
poets,  especially  beechen. 

393-397.  Like  the  fair  Hesperian  tree  .  .  .  Incontinence. 
Among  Juno's  wedding-gifts  were  the  golden  apples.  These  were 
placed  under  the  ward  of  three  nymphs,  the  Hesperides,  who  were 
assisted  by  the  dragon  Ladon.  One  of  Hercules'  labours  was  to  obtain 
these  apples  by  slaying  the  dragon.  Read  Tennyson's  poem  of  The 
Hesperides. 

401.  Danger  -will  wink  on  opportunity.  Danger  will  not  be 
true  to  his  office  as  a  police-officer,  but  fail  intentionally  to  see.  That 
suggests  Shakespeare's  "that  runaway's  eyes  may  wink,"  in  Komeo 
and  Juliet,  Act  iii.,  sc.  2. 

413.    Squint  suspicion.     Cf.  Faery  Queene,  III.,  xii.,  15. 

422.  Like  a  quivered  nymph.    A  Virgilian  suggestion  of  Diana. 
Cf.  Spenser's  Belphoebe,  Faery  Queene,  II.,  iii.,  29. 

423.  Unharboured.     Unsheltered. 

426.  Mountaineer.  A  word  that  once  had  a  bad  sense  as  well  as 
good.  Cf.  Cymbeline,  Act.  iv.,  scene  ii.,  1. 


NOTES  ON  COM  US.  93 

432-437.  Some  say  .  .  .  true  virginity.  There  is  distinct  imita- 
tion here  of  the  famous  passage,  "  Some  say  that  ever  'gainst  that 
season  comes."  Cf.  Hamlet,  L,  1.,  173-179.  Ghosts  were  supposed 
to  be  set  free  from  curfew  till  cockcrow. 

441-452.    From  a  dialogue  of  Lucian. 

453-475.  This  apotheosis  of  chastity  expresses  most  clearly  Milton's 
mind.  He  also  writes  these  views  again  in  prose  when  he  defended 
his  own  character  in  the  days  of  the  Commonwealth.  The  philosophy 
oft  is  easily  recalled  in  Plato's  Phsedo. 

494-496.  Thyrsis  .  .  .  dale.  Thyrsis  was  a  name  common  in  pas- 
torals, but  the  passage  is  in  compliment  again  of  Henry  Lawes. 

495-512.  Note  the  insertion  of  a  long  unrhyined  passage  illustra- 
tive of  the  tune  and  time  of  Thyrsis.  Contemporary  poetry  will  be 
found  to  allow  similar  freaks. 

520.    Navel.    Middle  or  centre. 

529-530.  Unmouldiiig  reason's  mintage  .  .  .  face.  As  in  the 
melting  of  coin.  Note  the  pronunciation  of  "  charactered,"  a  form 
of  pronunciation  retained  by  Mr.  Lowell. 

552.  See  line  145. 

553.  Drowsy-flighted.    A  beautiful  word,  but  possibly  the  work 
of  the  commentators,  since  Milton  has  drowsie-f righted. 

561.  And  took  in  strains  ...  of  Death.  A  memory  of  a 
picture  in  Quarles's  Emblems,  probably  familiar  to  Milton,  repre- 
senting the  soul  in  the  form  of  a  child,  struggling  to  free  itself  from 
the  form  of  a  skeleton. 

568.  Lawns.  Any  grass-covered  space  in  Elizabethan  days  is 
termed  a  lawn. 

589-599.    The  ten  lines  here  included  was  Milton's  youthful  Credo. 

604.  Sooty  flag  of  Acheron.    A  figurative  expression  for  the 
nether  world.    Cf .  — 

"  All  hell  run  out,  and  sooty  flags  display." 

Phineas  Fletcher. 

605.  Harpies  and  Hydras.    The  one,  monsters  with  bodies  of 
birds,  and  heads  of  maidens;  the  other,  enormous  water-serpents. 
See  Classical  Dictionary. 

607.    Purchase.    This  word  is  used  in  its  primary  meaning.    See 
Dictionary. 
619.    A  certain  sheperd  lad.    This  allusion  is  popularly  sup- 


94  MILTON  LYRICS. 

posed  to  refer  to  Milton's  dear  friend,  Charles  Diodati,  and  his  skill  as 
a  botanist. 
627.    Simples.    Herbs  used  in  the  practice  of  medicine. 

"  I  do  remember  an  apothecary. 
.  .  .  which  late  I  noted, 
In  tattered  weeds  with  overwhelming  brows 
Culling  of  simples." 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  v.,  1. 

636.  That  Moly.  The  herb  which  Hermes  gave  Ulysses  defended 
him  from  the  sorceries  of  Circe.  See  the  Odyssey,  Book  X. 

638.  Haemony.    This  name  is  another  invention  of  Milton;  HSD- 
monia  was  the  former  name  of  Thessaly. 

639.  Sovereign.    Cf.  "The  most  sovran  prescription  in  Galen  is 
but  einpiricutick.' —  Coriolanus,ii.t  1, 125. 

642.  Lime-twigs.  An  allusion  to  the  practice  of  birdsnaring. 
See  Dictionary. 

651.  Break  his  glass.  Odyssey,  X.,  Spenser's  Faery  Queene, 
II.,  xii.,  56. 

655.    Sons  of  Vulcan.    From  Virgil's  ^Eneid,  Liber  VIII.,  252. 

660.  Chained  up  in  alabaster.  A  favourite  expression  of  Milton 
and  Shakespeare  to  express  a  stiffened  condition  of  the  will. 

661-4J62.  As  Daphne  was,  root-bound.  Daphne  fleeing  Apollo 
was  changed  to  a  laurel-tree.  Ovid,  Metamorphoses,  I. 

675.  That  Nepenthes.  See  the  Odyssey,  Book  IV.  A  drug  that 
made  one  forget  all  sorrow. 

695.    Oughly-headed.  Ugly -headed.  The  orthography  is  Milton's. 

707.  Budge  doctors  of  the  Stoic  fur.    This  is  a  much  disputed 
passage.    Good  sense  would  indicate  that  budge  here  meant  burly, 
but  budge  was  also  the  lamb's-wool  fur  worn  by  the  Bachelor  of 
Cambridge  as  a  sign  of  his  rank.    "  Fur  "  is  used  as  we  use  "  cloth," 
to  denote  the  clergy. 

708.  The  Cynic  tub.    The  tub  of  Diogenes  the  Cynic. 
719.    Hutched.    Stored. 

743-744.  Like  a  neglected  rose  .  .  .  with  languished  head. 
A  passage  out-quoted  by 

41  Earthlier  happy  is  the  rose  distilled,"  etc. 

Midsummer  Night's  Dream ,  i.,  1.  78. 


NOTES   ON  COM  US.  95 

745-746.    Must  be  shown  .  .  .  high  solemnities.    Cf.  Waller's 
"  Go,  lovely  rose ." 

760.  I  hate  when  vice  can  bolt  her  arguments.  To  sift  as  the 
bolting-mill  sifts  wheat  from  bran. 

767.  Spare  Temperance.  Dowden  thinks  the  Lady  here  is  indeed 
Milton,  the  Lady  of  his  college,  whose  abstemious  habits  were  hit 
early  as  late  culture. 

"  Distribution  should  undo  excess, 
And  each  man  have  enough." 

King  Lear,  iv.,  i,  73. 

791.     Fence,    Abridgment  for  defence. 

804.  Speaks  thunder  and  the  chains  of  Erebus.  An  allusion  to 
the  contest  between  Zeus  and  the  Titans.  See  Classical  Dictionary. 

817.  Backward  mutters.  In  the  lore  of  charms,  the  power  of  a 
charm  is  dispelled  by  a  reversal  of  the  performance. 

822.  Meliboeus,    Probably  an  allusion  to  Spenser,  since  Milton 
takes  the  Spenserian  version  of  the  Sabrina  story,  but  Meliboeus  is  a 
character  in  Virgil's  Eclogue  I. 

823.  Soothest.    Truest. 

824-858.  The  inweaving  of  the  legend  of  the  Severn  has  a  dramatic 
fitness  that  should  be  noted. 

859-890.  See  Classical  Dictionary  if  necessary  for  these  familiar 
allusions. 

894.    Turkis.    The  turquoise,  originally  the  Turkish  stone. 

897.    Printless  feet.    Supernatural  folk  leave  no  mortal  footprint. 

921.    Amphitrite.    Goddess  of  the  sea  and  wife  of  Neptune. 

923.  Anchises'  line.  Locrine,  in  mythological  pedigrees,  was  a 
direct  descendant  of  Anchises. 

958.  Back,  shepherds.  As  the  scene  changes,  the  curtain  rises 
on  a  peasant  dance  that  with  its  awkward  ducks  and  nods  must  now 
give  way  to  the  noble  family  to  appear. 

966-975.  This  song  of  presentation  was  sung  by  Lawes,  the  com- 
poser. 

976.  To  the  ocean  now  I  fly.  The  student  familiar  with  Shake- 
speare's Tempest  will  readily  see  where  Milton  found  his  model 
for  his  song. 

982.  Hesperus  and  his  daughters  three.  ^Egle,  Cynthia,  and 
Hesperia,  daughters  of  Hesperus,  were  famous  for  their  song. 


96  MILTON  LYRICS. 

999.    Adonis.    Adonis  died  of  a  wound  received  in  the  chase. 

1002.  Assyrian  queen.  Venus  with  reference  to  her  identity 
with  Astarte. 

1003-1004.  The  story  of  Cupid  and  Psyche  is  too  familiar  to  need 
reiteration.  Its  adaptation  here  is  in  the  purified  Psyche. 

1020.    She  can  teach  you  how  to  climb.    Cf .  — 

"  To  a  stranger  here  on  earth, 
In  heaven  she  hath  her  right  of  birth. 
There,  there  is  virtue's  seat." 

Ben  Jonson's  Song  of  Virtue. 


NOTES  ON  LYCIDAS. 


LINK  1.  Yet  once  more.  Milton's  last  poetical  production  had 
been  Comus,  in  1634.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  lines  1,  15,  22,  39,  51, 
82,  91,  92, 161  are  without  rhymes. 

1-2.  Laurels  .  .  .  myrtles  .  .  .  ivy.  The  laurel  was  sacred  to 
Apollo,  the  myrtle  to  Venus,  the  ivy  to  poets. 

"  Doctarum  hederse  praemia  frontium  "  (ivy  that  wreathes  the  brow 
of  bards).  —  Horace. 

"  In  myrtle  shades  oft  sings  the  happy  swain, 
In  myrtle  shades  despairing  ghosts  complain." 

Dr.  Johnson. 
(Request  of  a  gentleman  to  whom  a  lady  had  given  a  sprig  of  myrtle.) 

3.  Harsh  and  Crude.    Alluding  to  the  immaturity  of  Milton's 
poetic  genius  as  viewed  by  himself. 

4.  Forced  fingers  rude.    The  reluctance  of  a  true  poet  to  write 
verses  of  occasion. 

6.  Sad  occasion  dear.    Note  the  use  of  "  dear."    Cf. 

'*  Would  I  had  met  my  dearest  foe  in  heaven." 

Hamlet,  L,  ii.,  182. 

7.  Compels.    Here  is  an  instance  of  a  frequent  usage  in  the  ear- 
lier history  of  the  language,  when  the  close  union  of  two  nomina- 
tives is  followed  by  a  verb  in  the  singular. 

8.  Ere  his  prime.    Edward  King  was  twenty-five  years  old. 
10-11.    Who  would  not  sing,  etc.    A  rhetorical  construction  for 

everybody  would  sing.    Edward  King  had  written  verses  in  Latin 
and  English  that  had  already  attracted  attention  to  his  talents. 

13.  Welter.    To  toss  and  tumble  in  the  waves. 

14.  Meed.    Reward.    This  is  one  of  many  words  in  this  poem 

97 


98  MILTON  LYRICS. 

that  will  afford  the  instructor  an  excellent  illustration  for  the  study 
of  cognates. 

41  A  rosy  garland  was  the  victor's  meed." 

Spenser. 

NOTE.  The  rhyme  with  which  this  line  ends  has  been  thus  far  the 
dominant  one. 

15.  Sisters  of  the  sacred  well.  The  fountains  of  the  Muses  were 
on  Mount  Helicon,  and  were  called  Aganippe  and  Hippocrene,  but 
it  was  the  Pierian  Spring  that  sprang  immediately  from  beneath 
Jove's  seat. 

21.  And  as  he  passes.  He,  as  here  used,  refers  to  some  poet  in- 
spired by  the  Muse,  who  may,  in  turn,  write  an  elegy  for  Milton. 

23-36.  For  we  were  nursed  .  .  .  hear  our  song.  Notice  the 
exquisite  pastoral  language  in  which  Milton  describes  with  sustained 
sweetness  his  school-friendship  with  King  at  Christ  Church,  Cam- 
bridge. Cf .  — 

11  O,  and  is  all  forgot? 

All  schooldays'  friendship,  childhood  innocence? 
We,  Hermia,  like  two  artificial  gods, 
Have  with  our  needles  created  both  one  flower, 
Both  on  one  sampler,  sitting  on  one  cushion, 
Both  warbling  of  one  song,  both  in  one  key ; 
AS  if  our  hands,  our  sides,  voices,  and  minds, 
Had  been  incorporate.    So  we  grew  together, 
Like  to  a  double  cherry,  seeming  parted  ; 
But  yet  a  union  in  partition, 
Two  lovely  berries  moulded  on  one  stem  : 
So,  with  two  seeming  bodies,  but  one  heart; 
Two  of  the  first,  like  coats  in  heraldry, 
Due  but  to  one,  and  crowned  with  one  crest." 
Shakespeare's  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  Act  iii.,  Scene  2,  205-215. 

26.    Opening  eyelids  of  the  morn.    Cf.  Job  iii.,  9. 
32-33.    Doubtless  the  undergraduate  attempts  of  Milton  and  King ; 
oaten  flute.    Cf.  Shakespeare's  song  in  Love's  Labour's  Lost. 

"  When  daisies  pied  and  violets  blue." 

Shakespeare's  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  Act  v.,  Scene  2. 

36.  Damoetas.  A  pastoral  name  recurring  in  the  classical  poets. 
Various  authors  have  interpreted  it  as  referring  here  to  one  of  Mil- 


NOTES  ON  LYCIDAS.  99 

ton's  tutors  or  some  Fellow  of  Christ  Church  who  had  encouraged  the 
youthful  attempts  of  Milton  and  King* 

39-44.  Thee,  shepherd  .  .  .  thy  soft  lays.  Milton  follows 
closely  here  the  mourning  for  Orpheus,  as  described  in  Ovid,  Meta- 
morphoses, XI. 

41.  And  all  their  echoes  mourn.  Gf.  the  joyous  echoes  of 
Spenser's  Epithalamiain ;  also  — 

"  Lost  Echo  sits  among  the  voiceless  mountains 
And  feeds  her  grief  with  his  remembered  lay.'* 

Shelley's  Adonais. 

60-55.  Where  were  ye  ...  wisard  stream.  This  passage  fol- 
lows closely  the  first  Idyll  of  Theocritus,  66-69,  and  the  tenth  Ec- 
logue of  Virgil,  9-12,  with  the  substitution  of  an  English  environment 
suited  to  the  tragedy. 

52-53.  On  the  steep  .  .  .  He.  A  mountain  in  Caernarvon  cele- 
brated as  a  burial-place  of  the  Druids. 

54.  Moiia.     The  highest  portion  of  the  island  of  Anglesey,  but 
Mona  is  not  high. 

55.  Deva.    The  river  Dee,  sung  by  Spenser,   Milton,  Drayton, 
Kingsley,  and  others. 

59-63.  What  could  the  Muse  herself  .  .  .  the  Lesbian  shore? 
The  student  is  referred  for  this  familiar  story  to  Ovid's  Metamor- 
phoses, XI.,  1-55,  and  to  Paradise  Lost,  Book  VII.,  32-39;  also  to  any 
classical  dictionary. 

63.  Swift  Hebrus.  Probably  borrowed  from  Virgil's  "  Volucrem 
Hebrum,"  as  the  Hebrus  flow  slowly. 

64r-84.  This  passage  affords  the  instructor  an  excellent  opportunity 
to  note  the  decline  of  poetry  as  the  Restoration  was  approached,  and 
the  quick  sensitiveness  of  Milton  to  see  and  deplore  it.  "  The  poets 
who  were  alive  at  this  date  were  such  as  Wither,  Herrick,  Shirley, 
May,  Davsnant,  Suckling,  and  Crashaw."  —Bell. 

66-69.  Amaryllis  .  .  .  Naera's.  Fanciful  pastoral  names  to 
suggest  either  the  allurements  of  a  life  of  pleasure  or  a  sort  of  poetry 
without  virility,  probably  the  latter. 

70-73.  This  passage  now  famous  has  been  expressed  by  various 
writers  before  Milton,  but  is  rarely  quoted  except  from  him,  illustra- 
trating  — 

"  Tlio'  old  the  thought  or  oft  expressed, 
«Tis  his  at  last  that  says  it  best." 


100  MILTON  LYRICS. 

Cf.  "I  will  not  deny  his  appetite  for  glory  which  generous  minds 
do  ever  latest  part  from."  —  Sir  H.  Wotton. 

75.  Comes  the  blind  Fury.  Milton,  who  rarely  errs  in  this 
respect,  now  cites  not  a  Fury,  but  the  Fate,  Atropos. 

77.    Phoebus.    Phoebus  Apollo,  the  god  of  song. 

79.  Glist'rin?  foil.  An  allusion  to  the  practice  of  placing  foil 
under  gems  to  enhance  their  brightness. 

85.  Arethuse.     The  famous  Sicilian  fountain  in  the  island  of 
Ortygia,  haunted  by  the  pastoral  Muse. 

86.  Smooth-sliding  Mincius.    A  tributary  river  to  the  Po,  near 
which  Virgil  was  born. 

88.  My  oat.    My  gift  for  writing  pastorals. 

89.  Herald  of  the  sea.    Triton,  the  son  of  Neptune,  who,  in  his 
name,  asks  the  cause  of  this  untimely  death. 

"  Have  sight  of  Proteus  rising  from  the  sea, 
Or  hear  old  Triton  blow  his  wreathed  horn." 

Wordsworth's  Sonnets. 

96.  Hippotades.  The  son  of  Hippotes,  ^Eolus,  king  of  the 
winds. 

99.  Sleek  Panope  .  .  .  sisters.  The  Nereides,  whose  haunt  was 
the  Mediterranean. 

101.  Built  in  the  eclipse.  It  has  always  been  a  popular  super- 
stition that  anything  accomplished  in  an  eclipse  is  doomed  to  disaster. 

"  Slips  of  yew, 
Slivered  in  the  moon's  eclipse." 

Witches  Songs  in  Macbeth,  iv.,  1. 

103.  Camus.  The  personification  of  Cambridge  University  on  the 
Cam,  lamenting  her  son.  This  reverent  allusion  should  tend  to  disa- 
buse the  mind  of  a  notion  held  by  a  few,  that  Milton  cared  little  for 
his  Alma  Mater. 

104-106.  The  costuming  of  the  genius  of  the  river  is  somewhat  in- 
volved in  imaginative  appropriateness,  in  order  to  inweave  the  well- 
known  legend  of  Hyacinthus.  See  Classical  Dictionary. 

109.  The  Pilot  of  the  Galilean  Lake.  St.  Peter,  in  his  function 
assigned  him  in  St.  Matt,  xvi.,  19.  Buskin  has  a  famous  treatment 
of  this  entire  passage  (108^131)  in  Sesame  and  Lilies,  Lecture  I. 


NOTES  ON  LYCIDAS.  101 

110.  Two  massy  keys.  There  is  no  Scriptural  authority  for 
"  two,"  but  ecclesiastical  tradition  refers  usually  to  two. 

112.  Mitred  locks.  An  allusion  to  St.  Peter  as  the  first  Bishop 
of  the  Christian  church. 

113-131.  In  this  famous  passage  is  seen  the  prophecy  of  the  Milton 
of  the  days  of  the  Commonwealth.  Already  his  indignation  against 
the  rule  of  Archbishop  Laud  causes  him  to  forget  for  the  moment  the 
subject  of  his  elegy,  while  he  inveighs  against  the  state  of  the  Church. 
As  a  study  of  contemptuous  phrase,  it  is  without  equal ;  as  a  study 
of  the  clergy  of  Milton's  time,  it  is  a  chapter  in  history.  Cf .  Chaucer's 
Persoun  in  the  Prologue  to  the  Canterbury  Tales. 

119.  Blind  mouths!  A  striking  mixed  figure  to  illustrate  the 
greed  of  the  clergy.  Cf.  Sonnet,  xvi.,  14. 

122.    They  are  sped.    They  flourish. 

124.  Grate  on  their  scrannel  pipes.  This  expression  admirably 
describes  the  thin,  effectless  character  of  the  sermons  of  this  period. 

126.    But,  swoln  with  wind.     Cf.  Hosea,  xii.,  1. 

128.  Grim  wolf.  Church  of  Home,  to  which  there  were  daily  ac- 
cessions from  the  Protestant  Church.  Acts  xx.,  29. 

130.  Two  handed  engine.  That  which  must  be  wielded  with 
both  hands.  For  prolonged  discussion,  see  Masson's  Milton,  vol.  in., 
pp.  454-456. 

132.  Alphens.  The  poem  now  returns  to  its  subject.  Alpheus 
was  the  river-god  who  loved  Arethusa. 

135-151.  "  The  most  exquisite  flower  and  colour  passage  in  all  Mil- 
ton's poetry."  —  Masson.  Cf .  Cymbeline,  iv.,  2,  Winter's  Tale,  iv.,  3, 
for  flower  studies  from  Shakespeare. 

Ruskin  has  a  fine  comparison  of  the  use  of  flowers  by  Shakespeare 
and  Milton  in  Modern  Painters,  vol.  iii.,  p.  160. 

138.    The  swart-star.     Sirius,  or  Canicula,  the  dog-star. 

151.  Laureate  hearse.     Originally,  and  as  here  used,  a  construc- 
tion above  the  tomb  to  hold  the  candles. 

152.  For  so.    In  this  manner. 

158.    Monstrous.    The  sea-depths  peopled  with  monsters. 

160.  Bellerus.    A  word  coined  by  Milton  for  a  Cornish  giant  in- 
habiting Land  End,  whose  early  name  was  Bellerium. 

161.  The  guarded  mount.    St.  Michael's  Mount,  on  which  there 
is  a  crag  called  St.  Michael's  chair.    Milton  refers  to  the  story  of  the 
vision  of  the  saint  on  this  mount. 


102  MILTON  LYRICS. 

162.  Namancos  and  Bayona's  hold.    Towns  on  the  Gallician 
shore  in  Spain. 

163.  Angel.    St.  Michael,  not  Lycidas. 

164.  Dolphins.    The  dolphin  was  fabled  to  carry  Arion,  the  Greek 
musician  whom  the  mariners  threw  into  the  sea,  safely  to  shore. 

166.    Your  sorrow,    i.e.,  Lycidas.    Cf.— 

"  Our  love,  our  hope,  our  sorrow  is  not  dead." 

Shelley1  s  Adonais. 

176.    Unexpressive.    Inexpressible. 

"  With  unexpressive  notes  to  heaven's  newborn  heir," 

Ode  on  the  Nativity. 

"  The  fair  the  chaste,  the  unexpressive  she." 

As  YOU  like  It,  Act  iiL,  Scene  2. 

'« To-morrow  shall  ye  feast  in  pastures  new." 

Fletcher's  Purple  Island,  vi.,  77. 

Nuptial  Song.    See  Rev.  xix.,  6-7. 

189.  Doric  lay.  An  allusion  to  the  Doric  dialect  in  which  Theo- 
critus, Bion,  and  Moschus  sang, 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  last  eight  lines  form  a  double  stanjsa  of 
exquisite  beauty,  a  poem  in  itself. 


Stutinits'  Series  of  lEngltsf)  Classics, 

Coleridge's  Ancient  Mariner 25  cts. 

A  Ballad  Book 50    .. 

Edited  by  KATHARINE  LEE  BATES,  Wellesley  College. 

Matthew  Arnold's  Sohrab  and  Rustum 25    .. 

Webster's  First  Bunker  Hill  Oration 25    .. 

Milton,  Lyrics 2> 

Edited  by  LOUISE  MANNING  HODGKINS. 

Introduction  to  the  Writings  of  John  Ruskln 50   .. 

Macaulay's  Essay  on  Lord  Clive •       •     35    . 

Edited  by  VIDA  D.  SCUDDER,  Wellesley  College. 
George  Eliot's  Silas  Marner      .       .       .       .       .       .       .       ,       ,     35    .. 

Scott's  Mannion ,     35 

Edited  by  MARY  HARRIOTT  NORRIS,  Instructor,  New  York. 
Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  Papers  from  The  Spectator       .       .       .       .     35   .. 

Edited  by  A.  S.  ROE,  Worcester,  Mass. 
Macaulay's  Second  Essay  on  the  Earl  of  Chatham     .       .       .  35   .. 

Edited  by  W.  W,  CURTIS,  High  School,  Pawtucket,  R.J. 
Johnson's  History  of  Rasselas 35   .. 

Edited  by  FRED  N.  SCOTT,  University  of  Michigan. 
Joan  of  Arc  and  Other  Selections  from  De  Quincey     .       .       .       .     35   •• 

Edited  by  HENRY  H.  BELFIELD,  Chicago  Manua}  Training  Sghool. 
Carlyle's  The  Diamond  Necklace 35   .. 

Edited  by  W.  F.  MOZIER,  High  School,  Ottawa,  111. 
Macaulay's  Essays  on  Milton  and  Addison 85   .. 

Edited  by  JAMES  CHALMERS,  Ohio  State  University. 
Lays  of  Ancient  Rome [Nearly  ready] 

Edited  by  VIOLA  V.  PRICE,  Southwest  Kansas  College. 
Selections  from  the  Speeches  of  Henry  Clay  .       .     [Nearly  ready] 

Edited  by  CHARLES  H.  RAYMOND,  Lawrenceville  School. 
Scott's  Lady  of  the  Lake [Nearly  ready] 

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